Animals
by Astarpen
Summary: Santana Lopez, hates Akron, Ohio. But her life is changed when she finds an injured 'dog' in on her way back home. [Charlie/Santana]
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: It's my birthday month, so I currently have a bunch of stories completed. As I do every May. Anyway Animals **

**Summary: Santana Lopez, hates Akron, Ohio. But her life is changed when she finds an injured 'dog' in on her way back home. **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

* * *

Akron, Ohio, was _boring_ as fuck. There wasn't anything of note in Akron. It didn't have the culture of Chicago where she had grown up. There weren't concerts or huge conventions or anything to spike her interest. It was, however, full of cheerleaders and footballers and everything that Santana Lopez was not. Her father's new vet clinic out here was supposed to be a 'fresh start' away from the typical teenage bullying bullshit that she had faced in the city. It was like her father had never been a teenager himself, or he was one of the popular kids, because even though they had moved she had discovered it was the same story, it was simply a different venue.

She sighs mostly to herself as she glances down at her phone and winces, she was late. Her parents were going to freak out about her being a few minutes past curfew. It wasn't as if she had been partying or trying drugs, or whatever it was that other kids did. She had been at the public library doing homework and trying to find some comic books that she could borrow. She didn't have all those activities like her step-sister Rachel. Singing, dancing, acting lessons, her step-mom had suggested that she take the classes as well but she simply didn't have time for that. She didn't want to spend her time singing and dancing and battling Rachel for affection from her parents. Especially when she knew her step-sister was not exactly the best at sharing the spotlight.

It was bad enough that her dad made her help out at his vet clinic for a few hours on the weekends, but it was better than joining Shelby's stupid singing club. She didn't care if she and Shelby weren't close, Shelby would never be her mother, and her dad tried his hardest but he simply didn't _get it_.

She adjusts her bag on her shoulders, at least the library wasn't _terrible_ and had a semi-decent collection of comics and DVDs, that were no longer available on Netflix. It would keep her entertained for a few days. She starts to pick up the pace, when she jumps back when a rustle sound in the bushes near the corner of the park and she stops to look around.

Perhaps it was all the horror movies that she watched, and the fact that they weren't far from a huge park of sorts where there would be plenty of places to hide a body, but she starts to panic. This was it, she was going to get mugged or murdered or whatever psycho-shit happened in bumfuck nowhere. No wonder her parents were so strict about being home by curfew. She looks around but there's nothing to be seen and she picks up her pace. This wasn't the best lit-public area, and it was probably because they were just near a playground. The quicker she could get to a well-lit public busy area the safer she'd feel. At least then she had a better chance of calling for and receiving help.

The rustling started back up again and in her head Santana could practically hear the classic Jaws theme playing in the background, and she was just about to book it when she heard a low pitched whine and whimpering. She stops, she had been around enough animals to know that it sounded like a dog in need. She swallows, maybe it was just a lost dog that had gotten separated from its owner.

Sliding her hand toward the pocket of her bag where she kept some beef jerky so that she didn't have to go home early and opens a package. Crouching down so that she hopefully appeared less threatening, she whistled softly. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt you."

It takes a minute, but slowly a large dog stumbles out of the bushes and hops and stumbles towards her outstretched hand. The dog nips at her fingers clumsily and she can tell right away that it's not used to hand feeding. It looks kind of like a husky with piercing green eyes and a gorgeous blonde fur coat that's only marred by one large black stripe that goes down it's—_his _back. Definitely a boy from the looks of it. One that hadn't been fixed. She gives the dog a chunk and lets him chew for a little while, frowning when she sees it avoid putting weight on its back foot.

She reaches carefully back to inspect the dog's hind leg, fully expecting it to snap at her. Dogs tended to get snappish when they were hurt, but she'd spent enough time in the clinic not to be too worried. Gingerly touching the back leg, she winces as blood coats her hand. The dog howls with a pained cry that sounds almost human. She pulls back slowly and looks for a collar but doesn't see one when she reaches to check.

She blows out a frustrated breath as the dog nudges her hand again for more of the jerky and frowns. She can't just leave him here. She's going to have to call her dad to pick them up. She glances around, hoping for any other way but there's no way that she can carry the dog home, and there isn't a cart, to put him in, though it would be hard to get him in the cart. "Alright, give me a moment I'm going to call my dad—" She stops when the dog growls at her. "Stop it. He's a vet. You need to get that back leg looked at." She snaps at the dog who immediately nudges her with his head forcing her onto her ass.

The dog shifts immediately, with speed that she didn't think was possible with its injured leg has her on her back baring its fangs at her. Those weren't the teeth of a dog. Shit, her dad was going to _kill_ her if this wolf didn't do it first. She didn't know which one was going to be more painful, and she closes her eyes as the wolf leans in still growling at her. Probably the wolf tearing her apart, she had read that their bite was stronger than an average dogs and—

Her internal freaking out is stopped when the wolf snarls once and then sniffs the air a few times. She's afraid to even breathe and can practically feel her heart racing out of her chest. He sniffs a couple more times and then presses his nose right against her collarbone and sniffs deeply.

That's it. She's done for. She's sure of it.

But rather than biting her, the wolf cocks his head to the side and sniffs the air again. If she's surprised she's not already dead, she's _shocked_ by the large wet tongue that licks her from the base of her neck all the way up the side of her face, leaving a trail of slobber the entire way. "Gross." Maybe it wasn't a wolf but some hybrid.

The wolf licks her again, just in case she didn't get the message the first time. Perhaps he had been domesticated, because she's certain at this point the wolf—though it may be a dog—is just fucking with her. She can see it in its eyes before it flops down on top of her, resting his head against her chest.

Santana stares at the wolf that is currently using her as a pillow and looks around to see if there was anyone who could help her, but there wasn't. She shifts a bit so she can wiggle her phone out of her pocket and gently holds her hand up for the wolf to sniff before she attempts to pet him. "Please don't kill me," she mumbles to it. The wolf shifts its head before leaning up and licking her face again and plopping back down. "Okay, good. Good boy," she's met with a low irritated growl at this and Santana shakes her head but continues to scratch behind the wolf's ears as she dials her dad.

'_Mija? You're late—'_

"I know Papi, but I need you to come get me. I found a dog that's been shot." Santana bites her lip, feeling bad for lying to her dad about this, but he would freak out if he knew that it was a wolf. "He's heavy and—"

'_Where?'_

"I'm by the park, I fed him a bit of jerky but there's a lot of blood." Santana said peering at the injured leg, she could see it a bit better now and noticed the blood clumping the fur around the wound.

'_I'll be there mija, just stay where you are._'

"He probably needs a kennel and some warm towels. Oh and jerky probably some more jerky." Santana added smiling a bit when the wolf barked in affirmation. Her dad was probably not going to be _pleased_ but he had never turned down an animal in need and he probably wouldn't start now. "It's going to be okay." Santana hummed to the animal who moved restlessly for a moment only to start whining and whimpering when it jostled its leg. Now her dad just needed to get here so that they could fix the wolf's leg. She hated hunters who knew how scared the wolf was.

~O~

Santana glanced up from where she was sitting, when she heard a whine and then barking. There was a small bang and she immediately shoots up from where she was doing her homework to go and check on their newest guest. She opens the door to the garage and spots the wolf barking and trying to gnaw on the metal bars that contained him. A security measure her dad had said. "_Papi _I think he's awake!" She calls loudly and watches as the wolf suddenly turns to her and growls softly. "Hey it's okay. It's me remember you licked my face last night? Which is like first base, so we're friends right?"

The wolf barked at her and flattened his ears. It wanted to take a step forward but when it put pressure on his leg he immediately yelped in pain and whimpered.

"Okay, so maybe not friends but we're close. I shared my jerky with you. You licked me with your gross dog breath, I rescued you from bleeding out, because some jackass shot you. I mean I don't know what that makes us but I'd like to think that we could be friends right?" Santana says slowly approaching the cage she had already poured out some dog food and a water bowl for the wolf, so he could eat whenever he woke up. She reaches for the kennel door tapping the tray of dog food. "See I got you food."

The wolf cocked its head and looked down at the dried dog food before smacking it with his paw knocking most of it to the ground. It seems to agitate the creature who immediately raises his hackles and growls at her before barking loudly.

Santana stared at the wolf before rolling her eyes. "Great just what I need another diva," she sighs, she had no idea how she was going to clean that up when her father didn't want her getting near the kennel. She's rewarded with a sharp bark and more growling.

"_Dios_, what big teeth you have," Carlos said flatly from where he was standing at the door of the garage, carrying a bag. He had spent a good three hours last night removing the bullet and cleaning the wound. As far as he could tell, there hadn't been any damage to the bones. The x-rays had shown that much. "And you thought he was a _dog_," despite how _tired _he was he couldn't help but rib his daughter. He had a feeling that she had known last night _what _the wolf was, but had lied so he would help. He would have helped anyway, the idea of someone shooting an animal was sick and cruel in his mind. He was proud of Santana for attempting to help.

Santana watches as the wolf growls at her father as he approaches slowly, "It's okay, it's just my dad he's just going to check your leg. She promises reaching her fingers out slowly to see if that would distract the wolf.

"_Santanita_, it's a wolf not a puppy." Carlos reminds her. "If you want to help, I'm going to need you to grab the rabies pole."

The wolf stopped growling for a moment and immediately started to back up in its cage and Santana frowned slightly. It was scared and probably confused. "It's okay, my dad just wants to check the wound on your leg. You'll be okay," she promises when she hears the whimper. She didn't want her father to get bitten, but she wouldn't blame the wolf if she tried. "I'll be right back," she promises her father immediately taking off to head to the kitchen.

Carlos studies the wolf in front of him, they normally avoided humans but this one clearly didn't seem to be timid. Not from what he had seen last night, in fact it seemed to only calm down when Santana was nearby. The animal was probably confused and disorientated from the anesthesia, which was why he wasn't that worried about his reaction yet. "Easy," Carlos soothed as he took a few steps closer to the wolf. He just wanted to take a quick look at the wound to make sure that it had begun the healing process. The low growls stop and he glances at the wolf once more to notice that his tail is wagging and he seems to be focusing most of his attention on Santana. "_Mija_—"

Santana smiled noting the tail-wagging even though the wolf seemed to be growling at her, like he wasn't quite sure what his opinion of her was. "It's okay," she says in a soothing tone. "It's fine Papi, he just needs to get a good smell of me and everything will be okay," Santana said assuredly even though she had no real clue. "Hey, remember me?" Santana asked sticking out one of her hands, so the wolf can sniff it. "Remember I gave you jerky you licked me, I mean the dog food—"

The wolf smacks the dog food with one of its paws and lets another growl at Santana staring at her with those green eyes of his.

Santana glanced down at the bowl of dog food watching as the wolf in front of her smacked it again for good measure. She reaches for the food slowly and the wolf stares at her before lunging again and smacking his head against the cage door. It immediately dropped to its belly and hid his head under its paws. "For a moment there I thought you were pretty smart for a wolf," Santana teases and gets an irritated bark and then whine back from the wolf in question. It was almost as if the wolf could understand her and was responding back, but that was stupid, it was just a wolf.

"Santana, get back."

"He's fine." She assures reaching to open the cage. Her dad gapes when Santana steps into the kennel and the wolf licks her hand for good measure. "See he's fine, he just doesn't know you yet—" Santana grunted as the wolf's head bumped into her chest sending her back onto her ass and just like before he's inside her personal space sniffing her. "Please don't—" Santana grimaces when she feels the wolf's rough tongue drag along her face, slobbering on it, "—lick me."

The wolf licked its lips and continued to sniff Santana licking parts of her body. Immediately it moves down her body and towards her stomach for a moment before raising it's head and leaning forward to lick Santana's face again, but he stops and turns to look at Carlos and growls loudly at him when he touches his flank.

"Easy boy, easy, I just want to check your leg," Carlos says in his most soothing voice. The wolf's ears flatten and he grimaces and he flicks his attention to Santana. "Distract him with the jerky, I need to check the wound and clean it, and it might cause him discomfort. I _would prefer_ not to get bitten today."

Santana nods and immediately reaches into her pocket and unwraps the beef jerky. It seems to work as the wolf turned to look at her after a moment and began to sniff the treat. She swallows when it nips her fingers as it begins to eat the jerky. She unwraps another one, and shoots a look at her father as she feeds the wolf again.

Carlos sighs, he didn't particularly like putting his daughter in danger. Wolves were wild animals but this one seemed to be taken with her. He'd deal with it later, right now he needed to clean the wound and re-bandage it. He quickly pulls the bandage off and pauses for a moment, he had given the wolf a quick trim, he had needed to remove the fur around the area, but it seemed as if the fur had regrown. It was impossible and he shakes his head, he had been in a rush and it was possible he hadn't done that great of a job. He parts the fur and nods, there are some parts of it that are still relatively short, so perhaps that was it. He checks the wound carefully noting the inflammation and checking on the stitches. It looked _normal_ all things considered, in fact as far as he could tell the wound looked like it was a few days into the healing process. If things progressed the way they should, then maybe he could take the stitches out early. He sprays some hydrochloric spray on the wound, glad that he doesn't have to worry about anything like an infection and lets the leg down slowly before backing away. "Looks good. If he heals this quickly we can probably release him back into the forest in a few days—"

"A few days? _Papi_, he's hurt." Santana distractedly gives the large remaining chunk of the jerky as she looks at her father in disbelief. She was no expert when it came to bullet wounds but a few days could hardly be enough time.

"Who is the vet here?" Carlos retorts, frowning when the wolf seemed to snarl in his direction before licking Santana's hand again. "Mija, he's not a pet. He's a wild animal and it doesn't matter if he's used to humans or not. It also doesn't matter that he likes you, he still needs to go back. I didn't think that there were _wolves_ this far south in Ohio."

"I know that, I just—whoever shot him might still be out there. And look at him Papi? He might not even be a full blood wolf—he's a bit small." The wolf snorts in her face immediately and Santana gently pushes his head away. "He could be part dog." Truthfully he had seemed much larger last night, but that could have easily been because of the fur. The wolf barked at that statement causing Santana to turn to him. "I'm trying to help you, _shush_." She gets another bark in response.

Carlos shook his head, "It's not domesticated you can't just—"

Santana frowned, this had been the most interesting thing to happen to her and she wasn't just going to let it go. "I'm not saying we keep him, I'm just saying we keep him for a few weeks, until we're sure. I mean he could be someone's pet."

"Santana look at him. He's a wolf, he's not a domesticated pet. No one is teaching him how to sit—" Carlos gaped when the wolf sat down and turned to him. He could swear that the beast was mocking him. It was probably just coincidence.

Santana however wasn't going to let it slide, "Good boy!" She moves back and holds her hand up, "Paw? Can you shake my hand?" The wolf stares at her before tilting its head for the jerky only to have Santana hold it out of his reach, instead extending her hand. "Paw?" The wolf snorted again and smacked his paw on her hand. Santana smiles at this and looks up at her father. "Down boy."

The wolf promptly ignored that command and instead nudged Santana's waist looking for more treats.

Santana backed away a bit and held her hand out. "Stay." The wolf tilted its head at her and sat back down watching her. "Good boy—see dad? Maybe he is someone's pet and we should put out fliers, whoever shot him might have removed his collar."

Carlos sighed, if that was the case then someone was circumventing the law, or had the brilliant idea to keep a wolf as a pet. It was possible that his daughter was right and the animal in question was half-dog. It did show some domesticated intelligence, "Fine, we'll put up some flyers, and see if anyone is missing their pet. But we can't keep it, it's pretty aggressive—"

"He's in a strange place, with strange people." Santana reminded him.

Carlos rolled his eyes and sighed on the off chance that she was right, he would simply do his due diligence before releasing the animal back into the wild. "I still need you to be careful around him. If he is someone's pet maybe one of the vets in the area have more information about it. I'll ask around."

Santana nods and reaches to pet the wolf, she'd have to come up with a name for it. She couldn't keep referring to it as the wolf. The wolf who stared at her and then went back to it's dog bowl and smacked the food away again and began to bark at her. She sighs, "I think we have some ground beef in the fridge."

"That was for dinner tonight," Carlos reminds her.

"Fine I'll get some bacon from the fridge and—" Santana stared at the wolf who had gone rigid at the word bacon and whose tail was wagging around wildly. "Bacon it is," she sighed shaking her head. It was clearly a domesticated dog. Maybe she could call him Bacon Bit, or Butterscotch to match his fur.


	2. Chapter 2

With regionals a couple of weeks away, it was a rarity for Rachel to be home before anyone else. But her last class had been cancelled and today was a _day _off from practice, she needed to give her voice some rest. The last thing she needed was another throat infection. She opens the front door and winces at the sound coming from the garage. Carlos—her step father had insisted that they not use the garage for a few days while the wolf was healing but the poor thing sounded like it was being _tortured_.

She sighs slightly and pokes her head into the garage where the wolf was currently gnawing on the bars before sitting back and smacking the bars with its paws, whining. The wolf's ears flick over to her and it's whining ramps up before it begins to howl balefully at her.

"You _poor thing_," Rachel coos, the sight was _horrific_ and brought to mind all the horrid conditions that chickens lived in just to pump out a few eggs. The cage looked far too small for a majestic creature like that and she takes a step towards the cage, only for the wolf to growl at her.

Rachel stops for a moment, she had heard her mom arguing with her step-dad about how _dangerous it was_, and how it was a terrible accident waiting to happen but she had seen how the wolf seemed to enjoy Santana's company, and playing with her. She pauses for a moment before realizing that the trick was probably that Santana seemed to feed him _non-stop_. He had probably come to recognize her as the bringer of _snacks_. She could totally do that, to prove to Santana that she wasn't _that _special. "I'll be right back with food," she informs the wolf in an even tone and the wolf stops growling and immediately sits down and smacks it's water bowl.

Rachel laughs, it seemed to understand that one word more than anything. She hums and heads to the kitchen looking around and making a face at the roast that was thawing on the counter. She didn't understand why her family _insisted_ on eating meat. They certainly didn't need to and her vegan lifestyle was far more _healthy_. She pops open the fridge and grabs the bag of baby carrots and a bell pepper and some broccoli and cauliflower, washing it and cutting it into small easier to eat pieces. She puts it all in the dog dish that Santana had washed in the morning and heads back to the caged up wolf.

"It's okay, see I brought you food!" Rachel whispers quietly and carefully carrying the dog dish filled with the fresh veggies. She smiles when the wolf sits up and approaches the front of the cage, it's tail wagging happily. She laughs when it licks its nose and tries to walk up to her and bumps into the cage again.

Rachel makes it to the cage and looks at the wolf whose tail had stopped wagging and seemed to be studying her carefully. "I'm not going to hurt you, I got you food. Yummy veggies that will help you heal and make you big and strong." Rachel promises as she begins to fiddle with the cage. "Come on, I know you're hungry so come get something to eat," she coos. Maybe she can convince Carlos that the wolf needed to be let free, this was no place for a creature such as this.

Rachel finally gets the cage open and places the veggies in the far corner closest to the door. She wanted to help this creature, but she also wasn't stupid. Santana had talked on and on about this dog and if it liked _Santana_ then surely it was going to love her. "Come here boy, I know you're hungry." The wolf stares at her for a moment and then immediately lunges at the open space, with a speed that causes her to panic and fall back onto the ground.

The door to the cage swings open as the wolf forces it open the rest of the way. It steps out of the cage and growls at Rachel loudy, taking a menacing step towards her as it smacks the dish away.

Rachel swallows and backs up, perhaps this _hadn't been _her smartest idea yet, and she flashes a smile at the wolf. "My—what big teeth you have—please don't eat me. _Please_, I have regionals in a couple of weeks and I hear that McKinley is _super _strong and my team _needs me_." Rachel continues to back up slowly as the wolf continues to growl at her staring her down, till her back hits the wall and the wolf is standing on top of her. She was going to _die_ a tragic death at the hands of an animal that she would have defended. Instead she feels a snort of air hit her face and she opens her eyes to the wolf staring at her before turning around and walking off toward the main house.

Rachel takes a few calming breaths trying to calm her nerves and stop the shaking, the wolf hadn't attacked her. She was still alive, she hadn't done anything humiliating like wet herself, though if she was being honest she had peed a little. She slumps a bit and tries to pull herself together when she hears a loud _clang_ coming from the kitchen. "_Shit_." Her mother was going to _kill her_. Scrambling to her feet she immediately takes off towards the kitchen nearly _slipping_ on her socks as she tries to run into the kitchen. She stops at the entrance to the kitchen to see the wolf simply chowing down on what was supposed to be the roast for dinner. "Shit."

The noise is enough to cause the wolf to turn to her and growl lowly before grabbing the roast between its jaws and taking off into the living room.

Immediately Rachel runs after it, she knew it was probably a bad idea she had no idea how she was going to get the wolf back into its cage. Suddenly understanding _why_ he was locked up and not allowed to roam freely in the house. She could already hear Santana's caustic sarcastic remarks in her head, and the inevitable grounding her mother would give her for being so _stupid._ She skids into the living room nearly falling but the wolf was no longer there, at least—it didn't appear to be in the room. She immediately takes a few steps towards the back of the couch but she didn't see him.

She chews on the inside of her cheek and slowly turns to the staircase biting her lip, "_Please_, please, please don't tell me you made it upstairs," she bites her lip. She had important stuff upstairs and she was already having flashes of the wolf tearing it apart. She could only pray that she had left her door closed for once.

She stops at the top of the stairs and smiles noting that her door was indeed closed as was her parents, even Santana's door was closed, which probably meant that he was in the bathroom and she immediately heads to check it out, frowning when she didn't see him. She turns and heads back out to look carefully at the doors, with their round handles there was no way that he'd be able to open the door right? "Here boy, come here boy." Rachel said wishing she had a squeaky toy of some sort to bring the wolf out. She stops noting the wet spot on the staircase outside of Santana's room and immediately heads to and opens the door.

She wasn't normally allowed in the room but this was an emergency, and as she pokes her head in the room, but there was no indication that the wolf was even around. She immediately gets on her hands and knees to check under the bed but it wasn't hiding under her bed or her desk. "Santana is going to _kill me_," she groans.

~O~

"What do you mean you _lost him_?" Santana yelled struggling to contain her temper. Rachel had probably done something stupid like released the wolf out into the wild or _worse_. The poor animal was probably terrified of Rachel's incompetence.

"I just wanted to _feed him_, and he was whining and howling! It was cruel and unusual! I've seen you playing with him, he's _trained_. How was I supposed to know that he would run away?" Rachel said defensively. "He ran upstairs somewhere and I can't seem to locate him, and I've checked everywhere. But you should have heard him, he was so upset, crying and howling like he was being tortured. It was the only humane thing I could do—"

"That's what dogs do when they're caged up, they whine because they don't like being cooped up, but it's _injured_ you _idiot_. What if he rips his stitches? What if he hurts himself?" Santana snaps at her, wanting to shake the diva, the worry creeping into her voice.

"You let a wild animal run through my house?" Shelby questions her daughter horrified. "Rachel it's a _wolf._ The only reason it's even in the garage was because it was injured!"

"I'm sorry!" Rachel groaned inwardly. "I was trying to help the animals! It seemed safe, Santana does it all the time! It even lets you pet him Carlos!"

Carlos pinched the bridge of his nose, "All I want to know is how you lose a wolf in a house? This house especially it's not like we live in a fifty room mansion," Carlos asks. He shakes his head, it was a question for another time and he turns to Shelby. "I'm sorry but maybe you and Rachel should wait outside. Santana and I will split up and check every room carefully. It recognizes us, and he's probably stressed out and panicked, which means that he might lash out if he sees someone unfamiliar. Santana get the rabies stick, we might need them if we can't get him back in his cage."

Santana nods, "Right, let me just drop my bag off in my room real quick and then we'll go room by room." Santana shook her head. "He shouldn't have gotten into any of the rooms right papi? We've got round door handles."

"If the dog is intelligent it probably knows how to open doors like that, I once saw the result of a boxer opening one and what was left of the door handle." Carlos grumbled rubbing his temples. "Hurry and be careful, I'll go get the rabies sticks."

Santana nods and quickly makes her way to her room. She pops the door open and glances inside, but there was nothing that had jumped out at her. She sighs and drops her bag onto her bed and pauses before looking under her bed and under her desk but she didn't see any sign of the wolf. She sighs and is about to head back out when she hears a snore coming from her closet. She stops and slowly heads over opening the sliding door as quietly as she can only to spot the wolf curled up in her laundry basket with a half-eaten roast on the floor beside basket, fast asleep.

"How the fuck did you get in here?" Santana chuckles. Her words seem to rouse the wolf from its nap and it turns its head to her for a moment before stumbling out of her laundry hamper and grabbing the remains of the roast in his mouth. Santana takes a step back so the wolf could get out and raises a brow when the wolf drops the roast in front of her feet and walks right past her, hopping onto her bed so it can continue with it's nap. "Shelby is going to be pissed." Santana snorts, trying and failing to cover up her amusement.

The wolf's ears flick towards her and it rolls onto its back and barks at her.

Santana shakes her head knowing what it wanted. "Found him!" She calls out to her father and approaches the bed and begins to rub the wolf's tummy. She rolls her eyes when he begins to wriggle happily and his foot begins to twitch. "Who's a good boy? Who is? You are? Yes, you are," Santana smiles pulling back a bit when the wolf seems to have had enough and rolls back onto his belly. She probably shouldn't be rewarding his bad behavior but he was safe and that's all that mattered to her.

"Santana are you—" Carlos stops when Santana holds up her hand and watches as the wolf glances at him before getting up and digging his nails into the sheets before once again plopping down on the bed. He recognized territory marking anywhere, and the wolf had now claimed Santana's bed as his own.

Santana immediately looks up at her dad, "Can I—"

"Absolutely _not_. We're taking him back to the cage and—" Carlos frowns when the wolf lifts its head and barks at him loudly, before smacking Santana's bed as if he was trying to say something. "Santana he's a wild animal, and I know he's taken to you but I need to keep Shelby and Rachel safe—and I need to keep you safe."

"I'm fine. He _likes_ me, and see he brought me food so that must mean he _really_ likes me." Santana points to the half-eaten roast. "It's pack behavior right?"

Carlos cringes at the sight of the half-eaten roast. "Is that—"

But Santana had to plow onward before her dad could think of any more reasons to say no. "Look, he wouldn't have even gotten out if Rachel had acted like a normal person and left him where he was safe. But _no_ yet again she thought she knew better than everybody else. Why keep him in the kennel if she's just going to try to let him out again—"

"She won't—"

"You and I both know she _will_. Because she's an entitled brat who thinks—"

"Enough." Carlos interrupted her with finality. He looks at the wolf that's on Santana's bed, the animal only seemed to tolerate his daughter and they still needed to check for infections though the wound was healing nicely. "I'd rather him be in the kennel Santana. He can't roam the house like he owns it."

"Well—why can't we just bring the kennel upstairs? I'll keep him in my room, for now. It'll probably keep him out of trouble."

"You can't keep a wolf in a bedroom. It needs to be able to run—"

"So I'll take care of him. _Please_ Papi." She's begging now but she doesn't care. "I'll walk him and clean up after him and do everything until we find his owner."

Carlos sighed, he didn't know how to say no and he knew Shelby wouldn't like it. Especially now that the wolf had eaten dinner. "If this happens again Santana, he's going back to the garage. Is that clear? And you have to put flyers up."

Santana grins and nods, "Yes sir. You hear that buddy we're going to be roommates." Santana turns to the wolf who barks at her and kicks her pillows off her bed before circling once and plopping back down on Santana's bed. Santana blinked and stared at the wolf, she was quickly coming to the realization that she might regret this decision. She holds her hand out for it to sniff and isn't surprised when it licks her hands. Or it could be the best experience of her life.


	3. Chapter 3

Santana took another sip of her milkshake before placing it down beside her half-eaten burger and turning back to her homework. She wanted to get a head start on her English essay before the weekend. With all the excitement she was a bit behind on her homework,and it _certainly_ didn't help that her father poked his head in every half hour to check on her to make sure that the wolf was behaving.

He was adamant that the wolf stay in the kennel for as much as possible, which only seemed to work when the wolf was distracted by something. A few moments ago, it had been kong that was filled with peanut butter and bacon bits, something that he had spent nearly an hour trying to finish. But now she can't help but smirk as she watches him army crawl out of the kennel from the corner of her eye. Anytime she looked at him directly, he would stop and lay flat against the floor.

It's not until he gets halfway to her desk that she finally gives him her full attention by looking at him directly. Sure enough he flops against the floor and looks up at her with wide innocent eyes. She laughs, and shakes her head. "I don't believe you for a second," she mumbles watching as the wolf rolls over on his back and wiggles around. She knew what he wanted but she had no intention of giving it to him. "I'll rub your belly only if you're _good_." The wolf barks at her and she rolls her eyes but decides to ignore the wolf for now she had things to do and she wasn't going to reinforce bad attention-seeking behavior.

She continues to write her essay on Hamlet, wondering why they couldn't pick other pieces of literature to work on. She personally was not one of Shakespeare's greatest fans, in fact she didn't know _any_ teenagers who were. It was certainly a shame that they couldn't read other works.

Finally getting into a comfortable groove, she's only slightly aware that the wolf in her room was currently licking something. He had probably gone back to trying to get all the peanut butter out of the Kong, and she doesn't look up. It's not until she turns to grab another bite of her burger and a sip of the milkshake does she realize that she can't ever take her eyes off the wolf who is currently sitting there licking the evidence off his snout. "You _little shit_."

"Santana? How's he behaving?" Her dad's voice comes through the door from down the stairs.

"_Peachy_." Santana responds glaring at the wolf who seems to be laughing at her as he rolls over onto his back and barks at her. She knows what he's after immediately and crosses her arms over her chest. She wasn't going to reward him for bad behavior. "I already told you, only good wolfs get a belly rub." He whines at her and she immediately turns her face away from him. She wasn't going to cave.

"Good, do you think you're up for taking him for a walk? It's been a few days, and I think it might be good for him to walk around the neighborhood. I have a collar and lead for you, you're going to need to keep him leashed at all times. If he gets aggressive with people we're going to need to think of a muzzle."

Santana flicks her eyes at the wolf who growls and shakes her head. She gets up and isn't surprised when the wolf follows after her and exits the room. She pauses when the wolf begins to growl and bark at Rachel who was watching from her bedroom. "Don't be a dick," she mumbles to him gently nudging him with her foot, distracting him as the two of them walk down the stairs, where her dad is waiting holding the leash and the collar. "How far should I walk him?"

"As long as it takes for one or both of you to get tired." Rachel muttered, jumping back when the wolf barks at her twice.

"He's still sporting an injury so play it on the safe side for now. We don't want that wound to reopen." Her dad advises. He moves to put the collar around the wolf's neck only to have the animal back up and flatten its ears. He sighs and looks at his daughter handing his daughter the collar watching as she manages to wrangle the animal easily, "It's a head collar, he's a big strong guy and he might be able to pull you off your feet if he wants to run after something."

Santana looks at the plain black collar and frowns. She _knows_ they can do much better than that. "Can we stop by the pet store—?"

Carlos sighs and pulls out his wallet and hands over his credit card. Santana hadn't seemed this excited about anything in awhile and he can't discourage the fact that she's getting out away from her cartoons. "Just keep your eyes on him. We're still not sure if he's trained."

"Of course you're trained, aren't you?" Santana reaches down and scratches his belly. He paws at his nose for a minute, apparently unused to the bridle around his nose. She leads him out of the house proudly, tempted to shoot her dad a triumphant look but deciding that it might be better not to. She had plans and wasn't about to let them get interrupted.

~O~

Santana smiled and patted the wolf, he had actually walked with her with very little pulling. He had also ignored all the other dogs out there, only to growl when they approached him trying to sniff his butt. He probably didn't need a head collar, he had even let a child pet him, it was when she wasn't watching but he seemed to understand that he had to be careful around tiny humans. "We'll get you some delicious treats alright?" She scratches behind the wolf's ears as they finally enter the pet store.

It's only after they take enter the store that things seem to take a turn for the worse, and she feels the wolf stiffening up beside her. "It's okay—it's okay we're just going to go—" The wolf growls lowly and suddenly lunges. Santana immediately pulls on his collar trying to get him to settle. It only causes the wolf to lunge harder this time with enough force to pull the leash out of her hands. "_Fuck_," she mutters and takes off after the wolf who is now running through the aisles.

It's not graceful, the wolf's paws slip a little on the linoleum floors as he darts through the aisles before stopping in front of the small animal area and stops staring at the bunny that is in a glass enclosure. "Don't do it—" Santana begins only for the wolf to lunge forward again, this time it's nose slamming into the glass and stunning him. The force of the lunge is enough to cause a small crack in the glass and Santana watches as the wolf stumbles back.

Santana finally makes her way towards the animal who had begun to bark at the rabbit, probably terrifying the poor thing. "Oh come on, you were asking for that." She teases trying to check the wolf's snout to see if there is any damage. She glances over at the cashier who is watching them with barely disguised annoyance and shrugs. "Come on, we're going to get you a _proper_ collar."

The wolf immediately whines in frustration as Santana tugs it away from the rabbit. She shakes her head, of course it was probably thinking with it's belly which was why she was surprised when the wolf licks her fingers almost apologetically. "It's not really okay for you to go lunging like that, you're lucky we're in a pet store. You could have hurt someone and that's not okay." Santana mumbles feeling silly by scolding the wolf but it does seem to flatten its ears a bit and look properly scolded. She sighs and reaches down to rub it's head, scratching behind his ears. She stops and eyes the open shelves filled with costumes and t-shirts for cats and dogs. "Oh we're definitely getting you something from the wall!" She grins looking at the wolf who seems to be bored and wanders off a bit sniffing things. "You'll look great I promise you!"

The wolf huffed at her and proceeded to continue sniffing around the store, Santana grins and finds the perfect outfit for the wolf and grabs them and tosses them into the basket before deciding to grab a few collars and finally heading to the treats and holding up different bags for the wolf to sniff. It's not until she picks up a bag of bacon treats does the wolf try and steal the bag from her. "Guess that's the one." Santana murmurs, throwing a couple of bags of the treats into her basket as well.

It seems that her new pet is behaving himself as he waits for her to pay for the food and they walk out of the store together, it's only then that Santana's smile grows and she begins to root around in the bag. She pulls out a small fez hat and before the wolf could fall backwards to get away from her she puts it on his head. She puts the bow-tie collar on next. "There, now you look _perfect_," she declares, ignoring the wolf who growls at her for a moment before giving up and leaning forward to lick her face. "Gross."

The wolf instead shifts bumping Santana so it can continue licking her face. "Alright, alright—sit so I can give you a treat!" She sputters spitting a bit. Her face was drenched with slobber, and she reaches for the bag so she can grab a bag of bacon treats. It's enough for the wolf to sit and she wipes her face before opening the bag of treats and throwing it up in the air and grinning when the wolf tilts its head and catches the treat in its mouth.

Santana cocks her head to the side and looks at the wolf closely before laughing. "I swear, it's almost like you can understand me and you've got a human trapped in that furry body of yours." She reaches and pats the wolf's head. "Makes sense that the first friend I make here is a dog. No offense of course." She rolls her eyes when the wolf barks, "I'm sorry a wolf."

The wolf nuzzles her suddenly and she hugs him, "It just sucks you know?" " Santana talks mostly to herself. "New town, more of the same stuff you know? Not really fitting in. So what if I like weird stuff? I mean is it really weird? I think it's weird that Shelby makes a fortune being the coach of a glee club. I can't be the only one right? But dad loves her for whatever reason. I mean she's not my mom. I think dad just wanted me to have a mother, don't know why I needed a sister as well."

The wolf reached forward dropping his treats and licked Santana's hand.

Santana took that as an invitation to keep talking, stopping only to allow the wolf to pick it's treats back up. "I'd much rather it was just my dad and me again. Shelby's not _that _bad, but it's just not the same. I miss my mom and—I _get _it. She's not coming back, but it still sucks." Santana shrugs, "It really really sucks. I could talk to my mom about anything, and I love my dad but he's not my mom—I can't talk to him about _stuff_. You know girl _stuff_. I don't feel comfortable talking to Shelby about it either." She sighs and reaches over to scratch behind the wolf's ears. "It's crazy, though right? I can't talk to my dad but I can talk to a wolf?"

The wolf whines at this and tries to attempt to lick her face again, causing Santana to laugh. "No kisses, I'm okay—I'll be okay I promise. Beside your breath smells _gross_." The wolf snorts at this and backs up. "And now I've offended you, I'm sorry!" Santana laughs when the wolf pushes her a bit with his head and she scratches behind his ears.


	4. Chapter 4

"—and I mean it's not like I need to _find _a Charizard, but _Charmanders_ are hard to find as it is, so making it evolve is kind of hard. I _guess_ I could get lucky and have it hatch from one of the eggs I'm incubating, but at this point I'm just trying to find the places that the Charmander hangs out so that I can get as many as possible." Santana explains, idly flipping through her Pokémon to see if there were any she should be transferring or anything close to evolving.

She glances down at the wolf who is cuddling sleepily at her side. "You're not even listening, are you?"

The wolf grins lazily and rolls on his back, leaving his legs spread eagle in the air.

Santana snorts despite herself. "I guess that answers that." She scratches his belly anyway, even if he doesn't deserve it for _listening _to her, he's a good dog. Especially since she'd been dragging the wolf out for walks, using it as an excuse to go and catch Pokémon. He followed her dutifully, and she felt safe with him beside her despite the worried looks that her father gave her and the displeased looks that Shelby shot her way.

She smiles when the wolf rolls over and attempts to lick her face again, "We've talked about this, no _kisses_. I've seen where that tongue has been." She crinkles her nose, she had come back home and walked upstairs to the sight of the wolf cleaning himself. It had been amusing somewhat, the wolf had barked at her for a moment before going right back to it.

The door slams and Santana curses the intrusion into her solitude. Rachel's not supposed to be home for another few hours, but it looks like that hope is just a pipe dream. "Want to go for another walk?" Santana offers only to have the wolf snort at her and hop off the bed heading back to his kennel where he plops down on the comfortable blanket. "_Thanks_." The wolf barks in response and she can't help but roll her eyes. She had worked him pretty hard today. She flops on her bed, maybe if she was very quiet Rachel wouldn't bother her.

"That—" Rachel sputters to find the right words as she storms into Santana's room, "—_hooligan_ has disrespected me for the last time."

Santana eyes her step-sister warily. It's not the first time she's invaded her space, but it's definitely the first time she's done it while dripping with a sticky purple liquid. "What the hell happened to you?"

"I was _slushied_."

That seems to be enough to get the wolf to poke his head out of the kennel and look at Rachel with interest. Keeping his belly low to the ground he slithers towards her, but Rachel is so infuriated that she doesn't even notice.

"Why?" Santana furrows her brow. Her old school was by no means perfect, neither was Carmel for that matter, but Rachel looked like she had taken a bath in grape soda, so she had a pretty good idea as to what had happened.

Rachel stomped her foot and started pacing. "It's all that stupid New Direction kid's fault. She's got it out for me, I _swear_. When my mother hears about this—"

Santana arches her brow, smirking when the wolf starts licking up all of the stray droplets Rachel had left behind. "So all of this is what? Show choir drama?"

"It's like she thinks they actually have a chance against _me_." Rachel shakes her head in disbelief. "We _need_ to get back at her!"

"You go do that and stop dripping all over my floor." Santana encourages.

"We should get back at them—"

"We? What's this _we _nonsense? I'm not a part of your cult," Santana interrupts, watching as the wolf studies Rachel for a moment and she can tell he's debating if he should make the attempt to continue to lick up the sticky liquid. She bites her lip, she still hadn't thought of a name for him. "Hey Fuzzy-Butt." She grins when the wolf tilts his head to her and trots back towards the bed, hopping on.

Rachel blinked and looked at Santana, "What did you call me?" She puts her palm against her chest, aghast at the disrespect.

Santana rolls her eyes. "I was talking to the dog." She turns to the wolf and immediately reaches for his ears scratching his sweet spot as his tail begins to swing back and forth. "Who has a Fuzzy Butt? You do! Yes you do!" She grins when the wolf barks.

"Focus, Santana. We're talking about _me_."

Santana groans. "No, _you're _talking about you. I'm actively trying to tune you out lest I lose brain cells for every second I have to listen to you."

Rachel frowns. Sure she has a healthy sense of self-importance, but who doesn't? Her eyes narrow as the beast flops down against Santana and bares his razor sharp teeth. "Maybe we could use him to scare them."

Santana stops petting the wolf and turns to Rachel, like she's lost her mind and blinks when the wolf smacks her arm with his paw, trying to get her to continue to pet him. She does, it's not his fault that Rachel is a complete _lunatic_. "Are you _crazy_?"

"No! Think about it. He's big and scary and ferocious. All it would take is one little bite and they'd _know_ not to mess with Vocal Adrenaline."

"And then they call the cops who might euthanize _my_ dog because you're fucking insane."

"I said little bite, or maybe some like angry barking? That sounds about right. I mean he listens to you right?" Rachel questions reaching to touch the wolf who seemed to be enjoying getting pet. She immediately yanks her hand back when the wolf growls when she enters his personal space. "See? You can keep him on a leash, you can even put a muzzle on him to make him look super scary."

"No. It's a stupid idea."

"Well what other options do we have?" Rachel snaps. Santana was being wildly unhelpful. It's not like Rachel was asking for a lot, she just needed a path for revenge.

Santana huffs out an annoyed breath. It's like information goes in one ear and out the other. "_We_ don't have any other options, because this is _your_ weird show choir rivalry."

"Santana, _look _at me! I'm covered in head to toe of this gross, sticky liquid that I doubt is vegan friendly. They _humiliated me_ and bullied me, because they're jealous."

"Or they find you annoying," Santana mutters under her breath and smiles when the wolf barks at her, and smacks her hand with a paw. "God, you're so needy." Santana shakes her head as she continues to scratch behind the wolf's ears.

Rachel scowled, unsure of whether Santana was talking to the wolf or her. "I'll do all your chores for a week?"

Santana paused and turned to Rachel wondering if she was serious. Judging from the frustration and miserable look on her face she was. "A month," she says attempting to barter as she crosses her arms over her chest.

"A month?"

"He's my pet, and if anything happens to him, I'm going to hold you perfectly responsible," Santana insists, it was a terrible idea, but maybe if she just asked him to appear big and scary that's all she would have to do. He was a grumpy wolf that only really seemed to like her, she didn't want to even think of what horrors he could inflict if he got off his leash and was in a situation surrounded by a bunch of stupid teenagers.

The wolf barks at this and Santana looks over at him. He quickly nudges her arm with his head before barking again.

"_Plus_ you have to drive me around wherever I want to go," Santana adds after a moment, it would be good to maybe head to a new area so she can catch a few more Pokémon, and the nearest comic book store was a few miles away. It sucked that she couldn't drive yet even though she knew she'd have to share the car with Rachel.

Rachel looks like she's about to argue before stomping her foot, "_Fine_."

"I'm going to need that in writing," Santana adds after a moment, "With witnesses." She wasn't going to let Rachel squirm out of this one.

"I'm hurt that you don't trust me," Rachel grumbles.

"I'm annoyed that you're in my room dripping on my floors," Santana fires back. "Now I'm going to have to clean it up before he decides that licking up all that sugar is a good thing. Dad said that he's already gained weight because of all the bacon he eats—" Santana turns to the wolf who makes a whining noise at that. "Which means we need to walk more, isn't that right?"

The wolf hopped off her bed and went back to his kennel and curling up so he could sleep.

Rachel raised a brow, "You just want him with you to play that stupid game on your phone?"

Santana made a face, he had saved her a few times by forcing her to look up or barking when there was danger about. "Yes. No point in lying he makes a fantastic companion for that." He did everything she wanted him to do, sit and watch movies with her, and he didn't tease her about it or do anything of the sort he just sort of watched with rapt attention and she explained things to him even though she knew he couldn't understand her.


	5. Chapter 5

"Santana, how is the search for his owner's coming along?" Shelby asks her eyes flicking to the wolf that was currently following Santana closely. "It's been a few weeks, don't you think someone _somewhere_ would have put up posters or _something_?"

Santana bit her lip guiltily, she hadn't exactly forgotten that she was supposed to be looking for the wolf's owner, but it simply hadn't been a priority for her. "I called the pound and asked if anyone had reported a dog missing, but they hadn't. He's not chipped, so we can't find his owners that way. Also papi asked around the vets and no one had ever treated him before. But we'll keep looking for his owners, right boy?" The wolf nudges her hand to prod her forward and Santana has to roll her eyes. "I know. I know. Dinner time," the only thing that surprised her was that this animal wasn't already a million pounds. He ate like crazy and always seemed to be hungry.

"I read that if you mixed a bit of human food with dog food, that picky dogs will probably eat it. Maybe we should try that, I mean we can't really afford to keep feeding him like we've been feeding him." Shelby pointed out. The beast seemed to eat mostly raw meats, from steaks, to ground beef. He seemed to eat any piece of meat that wasn't nailed to the ground.

Santana made a face, "We can try. I mean, I think he's a bit too smart for that." She raises a brow when he nudges her hand again and sits and stares up at her. "Yes I get it, you're hungry. In a minute," the wolf barked at her and she rolled her eyes. She turns her attention to Shelby studying her for a moment. "You know that Rachel got slushied today right?"

"Slushied?"

"It's what the McKinley kids call it when they dump a bucket of slushie on someone, it's apparently all the rage over there. Rachel's calling for retaliation."

"Retaliation? You almost make it sound like it's some war on a battlefield." Shelby furrows her brow.

"It's high school, it might as well be a war." Santana pointed out. "You're theircoach maybe you should—I don't know stop it before it goes too far?"

"There's nothing wrong with a few harmless pranks between clubs, as long as no one gets hurt. Though I should probably check on Rachel to make sure that she's okay with Regionals coming up it makes sense that they'll try and take out our best asset. McKinley is surprisingly strong for a school that mostly focuses on its athletic program."

Santana rolls her eyes.

"Of course, we'd love to have you join Vocal Adrenaline too, Santana." Shelby offers.

"_Pass_." Santana grumbles and heads to the kitchen. Fuzz-butt seemed relatively intelligent but she could probably outsmart him. He was after all just a wolf.

Shelby sighs, "Well thank you for bringing this to my attention Santana."

"I'm only bringing it to your attention because Rachel agreed to do my chores for a month and drive me around if I helped her with her stupid little prank war." Santana throws in as she picks up Fuzz-butt's bowl. She opens a cabinet and grabs the large bag of Royal Canine grunting a bit as she pours some food into the bowl.

He sniffs it eagerly between curling his lip at it and looking at her disappointedly. He nudges the bowl back toward her in a clear sign that he was not about to eat it.

Santana rolls her eyes but picks up the bowl and goes to the fridge and pulls the ground beef out to place it on the counter. She turns to Shelby and shrugs. "He won't eat it otherwise."

"That dog food is like sixty dollars a bag."

"Papi gets a discount." Santana reminds her, scooping out some ground beef and mixing it into the bowl. Maybe Fuzz-butt would be encouraged to eat the rest of the food if it smelled like beef. She tries again, placing the food on the floor and nudging it back toward the wolf.

He sniffs at it again and lays down on the ground with a huff.

"Fine. Whatever. Don't eat." Santana gives up, turning back. When he gets hungry enough, he'll eat it. She turns back toward Shelby who is watching her with a look that is completely unimpressed. "What? I tried."

"Maybe we can try putting up posters?" Shelby suggests. If someone is looking for him—" She trails off with an indignant squeak.

Santana whirls around at the sound of the refrigerator door opening. Fuzz-butt nudges the door open with his nose and rips the ground beef off the shelf. He turns to look at her and lets out a low growl before trotting away. He stops and shakes out his fur before he passes Shelby and she can hear him walking up the stairs. He was probably heading back to her room, and his kennel which had basically become his cave. "Great. Now my room is going to smell like _beef_ again."

"Did he really just do that?" Shelby blinks, still shocked. "He just opened the _fridge_."

"I told you he was smart." Santana smirks a little proud of her new friend. Not every dog was smart enough or skilled enough to open a fridge and steal the food out of it. He was pretty brazen about the whole thing as well.

"Yeah, if only he wouldn't eat us out of house and home." Shelby mutters. "Maybe we should get an alarm to scare him off."

"I don't think that will work on him, he's not like other dogs. I don't even think he notices when he wants something. I mean we could try it. I think it all depends on how hungry he is." Santana shifts a bit.

Shelby pinches the bridge of her nose tiredly. "Of course. Because only we would end up with the world's smartest dog. That's just what we need."

Santana wasn't quite sure she what she was supposed to say to that.

But Shelby seems to take mercy on her. "Go. Make sure he doesn't get it all over your room, Rachel will have a tantrum if the beef smell wafts toward her room."

"Let's make sure we don't upset the diva." Santana snarks under her breath. She waits just a moment before racing up to her room. Maybe Rachel had changed her mind about using FuzzButt as a _prop_. She pauses for a moment when she reaches her room and hears a low growl. "Okay, I'm sorry that I tried to get you to eat dog food like a _normal _dog." Fuzz-butt looks up at her and huffs at her. He had already eaten half of the ground beef that had been there. He'd made a bit of a mess but at least there wasn't blood all over the floors this time. "So you don't like dry dog food, I'll ask Papi if maybe we can try the wet stuff."

The wolf stands up with half the ground beef still in its packet and drops the rest of it at Santana's feet and pats it paw on it.

"Look, Fuzz-butt, we don't know what your other family fed you but you can't keep eating bacon and a pound of ground beef. It's not healthy, and it's super expensive." She's about to continue when the wolf pushes the beef towards her with his nose. "Oh. You're sharing again, well that's nice of you." She sighs and takes a seat in front of the wolf and reaches for his head scratching behind his ears. "I guess I'm going to have to do more to find your family—but maybe I can still visit you right? Maybe they'll let me walk you and stuff. You're probably the best part of moving to Akron," Santana admits. She immediately scrambles back when the wolf attempts to lick her. "Your breath smells like _death_," she grumbles at him playfully shoving him away.

She laughs when the wolf rolls over, "You haven't been a good boy you know, but I mean you're pretty smart for a wolf," She shakes her head and rubs his belly slowly. "So when we do Rachel's crazy idea you can't do anything bad alright. You can't bite anyone, all I need you to do is growl a bit look big." The wolf barks in response and she grins. Maybe she could convince her Papi and Shelby that keeping Fuzzbutt was a good idea. "That's a good Fuzzbutt."


	6. Chapter 6

"Okay, Fuzz-Butt, up you go." Santana said patting the back of Rachel's black escalade. She groans when he instead sits at her feet and stares at her expectantly. "You are not getting a treat for getting into the car. You'll get them later." Santana groans and pats the seat once more.

"Santana at least put a blanket down, I've seen his nails and I don't want the back seat to be scratched up!" Rachel complained holding up a blanket for her backseat.

Santana groaned and shook her head, "Fine." She takes the blanket from Rachel and spreads it across the back seat. "You're _such_ a pain in the ass," she grumbles. This was a terrible idea and she had a deep pit in her stomach for this. She smooths the blanket on the seat and turns back to Fuzz-Butt who was currently just watching her and she could swear she saw some mischief in his eyes as she pats the seat again. He doesn't budge and after a minute of attempting to wait him out, she's had enough. "Fine. You win. Get in the car Fuzz-Butt and I'll give you a treat."

She doesn't expect him to react as quickly as he does, but Fuzz-Butt instantly jumps up on the seat. He circles for a minute as if trying to get comfortable before finally sitting down with his hind legs on the seat. He's fluffy enough that he runs out of room and he adjusts to rest his front paws on the floor of the escalade.

"Yeah, _now_ you speak English." The wolf barks in response and shakes out his fur once more. Santana can't help but grin, "By the way I tricked you. No treats for you!" She says gently closing the door. She can't help but laugh when the wolf barks at her and growls before pawing at the door. The smile on her face starts to fade when she hears the whining and the big eyes. She stares at him, and reaches into her bag. "You're a manipulative dick you know that?" She opens the door and tosses a bacon treat into the car, and watches as he goes after it, his tail wagging happily he seemed to be in good spirits today.

"Santana, we're going to be _late_." Rachel stomps her foot. "Did you bring a muzzle? For our protection?"

"He's not _vicious_. He doesn't need a muzzle." Santana rolls her eyes. Honestly, it was like Rachel had never even seen a picture of a dog before. How could she think that Fuzz-Butt was vicious?

Rachel pales but climbs into her car, glad when Santana follows without any more of Rachel's helpful suggestions. "Well did you at least bring his leash? Shouldn't he have one of those harness things to buckle him into the seat belt?"

"You worry too much, he's a good boy. He'll be fine." She turns to him when he tries to squeeze into the space between both seats so he can lick her face. She immediately reaches and begins to pet him. "Let's get this over with. Remember if anything happens to him, you're personally responsible," Santana reminds her.

"What's going to happen to him Santana?" Rachel gulps when the wolf stares at her. She grimaces at the smell coming from his breath. "Can't you like—brush his teeth or something his breath smells _terrible_!"

"At least he's not eating his own shit." Santana shrugs. "I can give him a dental chew when we get back, but I thought it would be more intimidating." She lies. This entire escapade is ridiculous but it might be good for Fuzz-Butt to travel. At the very least, Lima had a pretty good dog park that he would like.

"Good idea." Rachel agrees right away.

Santana tilts her head toward Fuzz-Butt, his breath was pretty bad. "Alright sit down, we'll pop a window for you. You'll probably like sticking your head out of the window." She waits and rolls her eyes. "I'm not giving you a treat for sitting down Fuzz-Butt. So sit down, and don't think whining and looking at me with those big doe eyes is going to help." She grimaced when he huffed in her face and went to go lie down on the blanket making sure to dig his nails into the blanket and scratch at it before hunkering down. She winces, there was no way that he hadn't gotten deep into the seat with that.

Thankfully, Rachel seemed too focused on her revenge to notice. Santana made a mental note to figure out a way to blame the scratched upholstery on this Fabray girl. Rachel was ignorant enough to buy it and then she wouldn't have to listen to her complain about it until the end of time.

~O~

"Is that him_?_ I thought you said that he was _huge_. I mean he doesn't look all that frightening, we should have gotten a Pitbull—or something scarier. He looks like a husky. Those don't strike fear into your heart."

Santana grimaced and immediately pulls back on the leash to prevent Fuzz-Butt from biting Jesse's hand. "Don't touch him. He's not exactly friendly and I don't think he likes you. He's not our dog, we just haven't found the owners yet. If anything happens to him then it's on you guys. So don't do anything stupid or rash, that gets him excited alright?"

"I thought we were going to have an attack dog." Jesse huffs.

"Have you seen his teeth?" Santana challenges immediately standing up for Fuzz-Butt, she didn't doubt for a second that he could be lethal if he wanted to. She had seen how he had gone after that rabbit, with a singular focus. "Look—he's better than those tiny yappy little dogs that you have and you know it—" Santana pauses when she feels Fuzz-Butt perk up his tail wagging wildly. She frowns they were in a parking lot outside McKinley, there probably wasn't a rabbit nearby, more than likely there was a squirrel that he had spotted. "Hey boy, you need to calm down," Santana says in a soothing voice.

The loud barking that immediately erupts from Fuzz-Butt is enough to get everyone to take a step back as he begins to pull on his leash, causing Santana to immediately tighten her hand around the leash. Something had clearly gotten him worked up.

"See, I told you he could be terrifying," Rachel beams, she knew better than to attempt to pet him when he was like this. "Wait till the McKinley kids see him now."

"Rachel—I don't think this is a good idea. He's getting excited about something and this is how accidents happen," Santana warns. "Fuzz-Butt for the love of god—" She lurches forward and immediately drops the leash before she falls as Fuzz-Butt breaks free. Immediately the members of Vocal Adrenaline pull away letting Fuzz-Butt break off into a full run. "Shit!" Santana snaps and begins to run after him. Pausing for a second and looking at Rachel who seemed shocked. "_Rachel_."

"Right." Rachel said breaking out of her daze and quickly running behind Santana who was clearly distraught. This had _clearly_ been a terrible idea. One that she hadn't completely thought through. If that wolf attacked someone what would happen to her? Would she go to jail?

He's faster than Rachel expected and despite her extensive cardio routine she finds herself straining to keep up. She can only watch in horror as Santana's beast lunges for the one person Rachel had wanted to terrify the most.

Quinn Fabray screams and Rachel can barely watch. What had she done? She had wanted to _scare_ Quinn, not have Quinn's entire face ripped off in front of her. The dog tackles Quinn to the ground and Rachel looks away, frantic.

She was going to jail. All of her talents would be _wasted_ in prison, all because she needed some petty revenge. How could she have made such a big mistake?

She expects to have screams of horror assault her ears, but frowns when she realizes that none of that has happened. Maybe people are just too terrified to even utter a word. She takes a deep breath before turning back to the scene of expected carnage and mayhem.

But Quinn isn't screaming, nor is she lying prone while the voracious beast devours her entrails. No. Instead she's got a wide grin and holds the animal tight as it licks her face repeatedly. She doesn't even seem perturbed by his rancid breath. "I can't believe someone found you. Where have you been? We looked _everywhere_."

Santana is stunned into silence and Rachel narrows her eyes, stepping forward to take charge of the situation. "This dog is yours?"

"What?" Quinn looks genuinely surprised before a slow shit-eating grin grows along her lips. "Uh, yeah. She's our family pet."

"Liar."

"What? Come on, Charlie. Tell her!" Quinn gestures vaguely. But the dog seems equally offended and sniffs indignantly in the air before squirming out of Quinn's hold to sit down beside Santana.

"If _he_ really were your family pet you would know that _he_ is not a _she_."

"Oh." The grin on Quinn's face grows wider as she glances over at the dog. For its part, the animal seems to be begging Rachel not to believe Quinn's lies, lying down on the ground and covering its eyes with his paws. There was no way Quinn could be telling the truth, Rachel could practically _see_ her trying to come up with an adequate explanation. "Yeah. My younger sister always called Charlie a girl so it stuck?"

"You're lying. I have a sixth sense about this." Rachel accuses.

It's enough to snap Santana out of her dumbfounded funk. "You're not psychic." She rolls her eyes derisively.

Rachel stomps her foot angrily and hisses at her step-sister. "You're supposed to be on _my_ side."

"What was _he _doing in Akron?" Santana asks feeling her heart sinking. Fuzz-Butt had never been as friendly with anyone else before and she could see him practically vibrating with excitement, even as he sat beside her. He looked like he wanted to go back. He had recognized her. That was the most important thing.

"Dad goes hunting up there. He probably got distracted by rabbit, it is his favorite."

"A likely story." Rachel scoffs. "There's no way we're letting him go home with _you_."

"Rachel, he belongs to Quinn and her family, we can't just _keep_ him." She feels a pang of sadness at the thought. But it wasn't fair to Fuzz-Butt to keep him away from people that cared about him.

"Why don't you believe me? She's _lying!"_

"Listen _Rachel. _Maybe you should take the advice of your nerdy little friend here—" Quinn snaps. "This is _my _dog and I'm not letting you kidnap her."

"You still haven't sufficiently proven that he's your dog. Where are his immunization records? Or his—"

"We took good care of him. He had been shot—" Santana interrupts before her voice cracks. She can feel her eyes burning as she tries to blink back tears. She smiles when she feels Fuzz-Butt licking her hand.

Rachel frowned, "Where is his collar? Also what's his name? I thought Charlie was your twin sister. You're not stealing my sister's dog."

Quinn narrowed her eyes turning her attention to Santana and ignoring Rachel completely. "What do you mean _he _was shot?" When Santana doesn't answer her right away she takes a step forward. The action is more than enough to get Charlie to turn to her and growl. Quinn doesn't seem perturbed by this turn of events and instead rolls her eyes and turns back to Santana. "What do you mean he was shot?"

Santana swallows, "That's how I found him, he was disorientated and I mean he seemed on edge. Like anything could happen, but my father's a vet so he made sure that he was okay. The bullet didn't travel very far, maybe it was a ricochet or something."

"Or something." Quinn mutters thoughtfully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rachel narrows her eyes suspiciously.

Quinn shrugs. "There's a group around Lima that likes hunting wolves. It's one of the reasons my dad goes near Akron to—uh, hunt." Something about the explanation seems off and it doesn't do anything to stop Rachel's suspicions. "Anyway, I need to get home and let my dad know that we found him, so if you don't mind I'll take my dog back."

"Absolutely _not_—"

"Rachel, look at him. Look at his tail, he recognized her. It's Quinn's dog." Santana intervenes. She didn't want a scene and if she didn't make the break now she was never going to let go of him. He had been her best friend; they were supposed to go Pokémon hunting together later. "I have some of his favorite treats in my bag if you want them. I mean I'm not going to have any use for them anymore and—"

"He's fine. He doesn't need treats." Quinn dismisses as if the very thought was completely ridiculous.

Rachel pulls Santana aside and the dog trots after them trying to stay as close to Santana as possible. "Santana, I'm telling you that this dog isn't _Quinn's_. You do not have to give him away if you don't want to, in fact I would rather you didn't."

"Rachel, this isn't some silly game between your two show choir groups. Even if it's not Quinn's dog, Fuzz-Butt recognizes her. So maybe she belongs to someone in McKinley, or her next door neighbor or _someone_. Besides your mom's been trying to find Fuzz-Butt's owners since we got him. This is for the best—" Santana glances down when she feels something wet and cold pressed against her hand, and listens to whining sound. She sighs and crouches down to Fuzzy's level. "I'm going to miss you too. Don't forget about me."

He cocks his head to the side and stares at her, taking the chance to lean forward and lick Santana's face.

She laughs and wraps her arms around his neck. "Give them hell."


	7. Chapter 7

"I don't understand how you could be so—_careless_ and irresponsible! You could have been _killed_!" Russell Fabray's voice boomed through his house, he had spent weeks searching for his youngest daughter, fearing the worst, and even though he _was relieved_ that his daughter was safe and sound, he needed to make sure she understood the consequences of her actions. Though he felt _ridiculous_ yelling at her while she was in her wolf form. He hadn't taught them _how _to change back once the full moon had passed, they were still underage and it was one of the few ways that he could keep his two alpha daughters in check. When they went on to have their own pack and their own pups, he'd make sure to pass the secret on.

"That's not the most concerning part," Quinn spoke up from where she was sitting on the couch studying her twin. "She got shot. At least that's what the girl said—" Quinn's brow furrowed when Charlie barked at her and bared her teeth. "Whatever her name is, told us. Charlie's fur's grown back and she wouldn't sit still long enough for me to check."

"Was it a normal bullet?" Judy asked from the kitchen.

Russell grunted and moved towards Charlie who had grown bored and was currently laying down on the ground. He grabbed the blanket and immediately draped it over her body. "We'll have to ask," he grunted and placed his hand between her ears, "This is _going_ to hurt. Hopefully that will teach you to keep with the pack while we run, no more going after rabbits." He informs her bluntly. He hears the whine come from his daughter but he uses her momentary distraction to jump start her transformation. He was forcing her body to change, which was where the pain would come from, she would learn how to do this without pain but for now it was a good teaching moment.

Quinn flinched at the sound of popping bones, and immediately turned her head away as Charlie howled in agony, it sounded _horrible_. It sounded like she was being tortured, she didn't want to watch as Charlie's bone morphed and snapped into place, growing and pulling and tearing at skin. It was Charlie's own fault for letting this happen. She should have stayed with the pack, but it had _always_ been like this. Charlie would wander off, she had the attention span of the gnat when she was in her wolf form—it wasn't _much _better when she was human either.

"Can't you do anything?" Judy asked looking at her husband, a huge part of her wanting to go and comfort her daughter, but Russell held his hand up.

"It's almost—"

"_Fuck! God-fucking-damnit—"_

"Language!" Russell snapped at her. Charlie snaps her head up at him her eyes transforming in front of his eyes and he could see the defiance in them. Clearly this hadn't worked as a teaching moment.

"The moment I stop _fucking_ swearing is the moment I start _breaking shit_," Charlie snaps at him, clenching her hands into a tight fist as her tail began to slowly be absorbed. This was the _worst _part of it.

Quinn frowned and crossed her legs and picked up her tablet, flipping through a few things. "Don't go acting tough now, I saw how you were with that girl, acting like a domesticated _pet_. Getting treats for doing tricks, I bet she dressed you up in some stupid outfit. It was hardly befitting our lineage—"

"Says the person who gets all hot and bothered when Rachel is around, don't fucking deny it. I smelt it—heard the increased heart rate whenever you paid her the slightest bit of attention." Charlie interrupt sand groans as her body convulses again.

"_Girls_," Judy sighs. "Stop it, you're acting like children."

"She started it." Quinn retorts. It's childish, but she doesn't care. Charlie's purposefully trying to get under her skin.

"In case you didn't notice, I'm a little busy _dying_ over here." Charlie grits her teeth and places her head on the ground, she could do this. Just focus on something other than the pain—Santana—she needed to see Santana.

Russell sighed and motioned for Judy to pass him his drink, as he took a seat watching Charlie convulse. It would be over soon. "To think that I would _live_ to see the days that my _daughter _would be domesticated, like a common house pet."

"She gained a few pounds too," Quinn throws in unhelpfully, smirking when Charlie manages to give her the finger. "You have. How was all the dog food—"

"I didn't eat dog food," Charlie snaps. She wasn't stupid who knew what that would do to her intestines. The pain slowly subsides and she groans slumping against the floor, the blanket her father had draped over her was the only thing protecting her modesty. Not that she personally cared. "I ate bacon, and raw beef, and I slept most of the days, that's hardly being domesticated. I didn't tear the family to shreds because they pulled a bullet out of me—I think. Honestly I can't remember, that part's a little hazy. Probably drugged me." She opens her eyes and sits up running a hand through her hair, of course it had grown out since she had been stuck for a month in her wolf form.

"Well thank goodness for small mercies, but was it a silver bullet? There haven't been any _hunters_ around for centuries, and if it had been a silver bullet—" Judy trails off looking at Russell. Charlie would be dead. The silver poisoning would have gotten to her and there was nothing a vet who wasn't aware of what she was could do. Charlie had been lucky and their daughter had no idea how lucky she was.

Russell narrowed his eyes when Charlie got up wrapping the blanket around herself, "Where do you think you're going?" Charlie flicked her gaze towards him and he sighed, the _wildness_ hadn't quite left her eyes. Her emotions would be rather unbalanced for the next few days. It wouldn't be as problematic if his daughter wasn't an alpha.

"I'm not allowed to wear clothes?" Charlie challenges and makes a move to drop her towel only to have her father nod and wave her off. She had no intention of staying _here_, all she knew was that she had this urge, a burning desire to go and see Santana. To make sure that she was alright. Even if she was no longer a wolf, she wanted to see Santana.

"Quinn, make sure she doesn't attempt to run off," Russell said after a moment. "You've been out of school for three weeks Charlie, there is a pile of homework waiting for you, and until you get it done the only place that you're allowed to go is to school and home. Which means that Quinn will be taking you to school and you'll be taking the bus home every afternoon. The keys to your car will remain with me."

Judy immediately stood up, hoping to stave off the conflict between her husband and her youngest daughter. "Come along dear, let me give you a trim before you head back to school." She immediately hooks her arm around Charlie's and pulls her along. "I'm glad you're okay, I'll make your favorite dinner tonight. You must be dying for _real_ food."

**Charlie shoots her father a dark scowl but lets her mother tug her along. How he always knew that she was going to do the exact opposite of what he wanted her to do, was beyond her. The moment she turned eighteen and finally learned how to control her transformation she was ****_out _****of here. To think she ****_missed_****him. **


	8. Chapter 8

Santana uses her fork to push her food around on the plate in front of her, completely disinterested in 'family dinner'. _Especially_ when family dinner included Rachel's attempts to update all of them about the newest happenings of her weird singing group.

Newsflash. Nobody cared.

Well maybe except Shelby. And probably her Papi since he was into supporting them and whatever.

Santana rolls her eyes and turns back to ignoring the conversation at hand, missing the worried look that Carlos and Shelby share across the table.

"That's great Rachel." Carlos clears his throat, wincing a little at Rachel's indignant huff at being cut off. "It sounds like Vocal Adrenaline is doing really well this year."

Rachel's annoyance seems to fade at the compliment. "Why yes. I think we are practically guaranteed to make it to Nationals."

"Hopefully." Shelby adds cautiously. She's been reminding her team non-stop that they can't get cocky and Rachel is probably the worst at assuming that their victory is assured. She also knows exactly where Carlos is trying to go with this and knows that Rachel isn't going to be happy about it. But they had to do _something_. Santana had wandered around for the last few days like some sort of zombie. "We just need a couple extra people to round out our numbers."

Rachel scowls. She doesn't like the idea of finding new talent, especially when new talent could either disrupt her place on top or _worse, _not be up to her impossibly high standards. "We don't _need_ new people. We have plenty of people to compete."

"New people bring extra excitement." Shelby chides, eyeing her daughter warningly.

"Santana!" Carlos gasps with a feigned enthusiasm that no one believes. "Maybe you could—"

"No thanks."

"But you have a great voice." Shelby encourages gently. "We could really use you."

"I'll pass."

"Good." Rachel huffs, irritated that someone could just dismiss being a part of Vocal Adrenaline so easily. "We didn't want you anyway."

Shelby slaps her hand down against the table top. "_Rachel_."

"What? It's true." Rachel defends herself. She's not sure why _she's _the one who is being attacked.

"Yeah, well fuck you." Santana snarls, getting angry. It was just like Rachel to make this all about her. _She_ wasn't the one who lost her best friend. _She_ wasn't the one who had to come to a new school that was practically modeled after High School Musical. "I tried to do you and your stupid club a _favor_ and it's because of you that FuzzButt is _gone_."

"That wasn't my idea. I _told you_ not to return him to Quinn Fabray. She's like a _terrorist._"

"I know that this is a foreign idea for you, but normal people are capable of caring about things _other_ than a stupid little club." Santana snaps. She's sick and tired of having Rachel talk down to her, especially when going along with Rachel's asinine plans only fucks over Santana.

"What? Like _cartoons_?"

"It's called _anime_ you fucking imbecile—"

"_Enough_." Carlos cuts them off, glaring at his daughter. She's having a rough time but that doesn't excuse that type of language. "If you don't want to participate, mija, you don't have to. But I know that Regionals is this week and _both_ of us will be there to cheer you on."

"Papi—"

"No. We support each other because we're a _family_." He stresses. His look is hard, but the longer he holds Santana's gaze the weaker it becomes. "And who knows? This Quinn person might be willing to let you spend some time with FuzzButt."

"I doubt it. She's a bitch." Rachel mutters.

"It takes one to know one," Santana throws in, unable to help herself. "But she didn't seem like the type of person who would just let me come over and hang out with her dog. I mean she seemed annoyed that I was giving him treats—"

"Again, this might just be me but I don't think that Quinn is actually the dog's owner—" Rachel speaks up. "I told you not to just give him to her, but no you didn't listen."

"You _saw_ him, he yanked himself off the leash to get to her, when has he _ever_ done that?" Santana asks. "He's a grumpy dog, and he only liked me. But he was practically bouncing up and down when he saw her. That's not faked and even if Quinn isn't the owner, she probably knows who that dog belongs too. It was the right thing to do. Even if doing the right thing sucks balls."

"_Santana_, please can we not talk about balls at the table?" Shelby groans.

"Sorry," Santana grunts.

"Well, the way I see it there's no harm in asking right? The worst she could say is no? And perhaps we could visit the shelter and see if there's a dog that you want."

"I don't." Santana grumbles. She really didn't, she liked animals just fine and she knew how to take care of them, but she doubted she was going to find a dog as intelligent as Fuzzbutt had been. She pokes at her food again, "Okay, can I go now?"

Carlos sighed and nodded, maybe he could talk with this Quinn's father and see what he could do to help make the transition a bit easier. It didn't help that Santana had all of the things that she had bought the wolf still tucked up in her room. He had thought that he would have to worry about boys when she got to this age, though he should have known that he would also have to deal with Santana's attitude. It wasn't surprising, she took after her mother.

~O~

"Is it over yet?" Santana groans as _another_ group gets set up. They've already been there for an _hour_ and it seems like they aren't any closer to the end. She's pretty sure that this qualifies as a form of torture.

Carlos scowls and looks at the program, unwilling to admit that he feels a similar desire to have this 'competition' over with. "It looks like we're half-way through."

"Can't we leave after Rachel goes on? I mean you would think that Rachel would want to go first or something, to freak the other contestants out or something," Santana groaned.

"We're here to support Shelby and Rachel, I'm sure if you had something that was important to you they'd be here cheering you on, if that means suffering through several terrible "show choirs" then so be it." Carlos frowned slightly as he studied the program, a school for deaf children—this was not going to be pleasant. "How about I go get us something to eat from the vending machine?"

Santana glares at him, not buying it one bit. "So that you can leave me behind to suffer by _myself_? I don't think so."

Carlos laughed. His daughter was too smart for her own good sometimes. Reaching into his pocket, he pulls out his wallet to hand over a ten-dollar bill. "Fine. Just don't tell Shelby that I tried."

Santana doesn't need any more incentive to stay. She snatches the money out of his hands and darts out of the auditorium as quickly as she can, lest her dad change his mind. She winds through the semi-lit halls of McKinley, glad that she doesn't have to worry about really remembering how to get back. If anything, she can just claim she got lost. That should eat up some time.

It takes a frustratingly short time for her to make her way to the vending machines by the cafeteria. Thankfully, they're not _sadists_ like her new school and have a nice assortment of candy and soda. At Carmel, they only have 'healthy options' in all of the vending machine and it drives Santana insane. Maybe McKinley isn't so bad. There aren't a ton of people in Lima and they don't withhold their candy like damn fascists. They did after all have a slushy machine in the cafeteria if memory served her correctly.

She grins at the bag of mini Oreos, and smoothed the ten-dollar bill out before feeding it into the machine. Even though Shelby said that he wasn't supposed to eat them anymore her dad loved them. Hopefully, it would buy her some goodwill from her father and he in turn would let her sneak out of the event a bit early. She certainly hadn't seen Quinn through all this, but Rachel had a permanent scowl etched on her face and looked slightly paranoid so she had to be here somewhere. She had brought the picture she had taken on her phone to maybe soften Quinn up, she didn't want whatever rivalry Quinn and Rachel had to affect her. "C6," she mumbles to herself hitting the button and grinning as the candy began to be pushed forward.

Her eyes widen slowly when she realizes that the bag of Oreos had gotten stuck when it stops moving and she groans and tries to shake the machine, as it gives her change. "Come on! Come on," she said banging on the glass for a moment. Because her day could not get any worse, she couldn't go back to the damn theater empty handed. She attempts to shake the machine again, "Come on! I paid for—" Santana jumps when a hand enters her peripheral vision and whizzes by her head to slam into the machine with a force that causes the enter machine to shudder and release the candy. She immediately whips around to see a taller blonde woman staring at her intently. It takes her a moment to realize that it's Quinn. "Oh hey Quinn—" Santana squints for a second, she recognized Quinn but the person staring back at her wasn't Quinn. Quinn's eyes didn't feel _that _familiar to her and there wasn't an almost wild look. Not, wild as in crazy, but wild as in primal. "You're not Quinn," Santana manages to get out.

The Quinn-look-alike shoots her a grin and Santana is taken aback by the dazzling smile, "Fuck, no. There is no way in fucking hell that you're going to catch me joining a group of weirdos, who enjoy dressing up and singing songs while doing lame dance steps. The name is Charlie. Charlie Fabray." Charlie says with a smirk. "And I think that you and I need to have a talk Santana."


	9. Chapter 9

Santana swallowed attempting to control her rather erratic heartbeat. Fairy tales and love at first sight didn't fucking exist and she wasn't going to appear like some _lame_ freshman. "I didn't know that Quinn had a twin," she mumbled, her cheeks immediately heating up in embarrassment. She normally didn't care about what the cool kids thought of her and she was normally a bit more combative. She blinks away her initial attraction. "Charlie? Isn't that the name of your—"

"Yes. It is."

Santana isn't sure how to respond to that. "Oh."

Charlie reaches into the machine and retrieves her candy. "The machine always needs a good hard smack, or you don't get your candy. Do you want anything else? My treat, you did take excellent care of my dog," Charlie asks pulling out some money from her pocket.

Santana points to the Milky Way in the vending machine still studying Charlie carefully, ripped skinny jeans, wild hair that seemed to just fit her—there was something about her that made her feel uncomfortable and also safe at the same time. The two warring emotions pulled at each other, but she chose to feel comfortable. Charlie was trying to be nice, even if she was in her personal space. "How is he? Um—I called him Fuzzbutt—does he miss me?"

Charlie smacked the machine again and picked out some of the candy, "Fuzzbutt—I like that. I think he does. Dad has him under lockdown for now, so maybe you can see him after dad retrains him to not run off during a hunt."

Santana's eyes widen at this; she hadn't even asked if she could see him again but Charlie had offered. "Yeah. That would be great."

Charlie nods at this and flicks her eyes over Santana for a moment, "So—" She frowns trying to think of the right thing to say. She was an _alpha_ and she was supposed to be _smooth_. Yet here her mate stood, not even a foot away from her and she felt like she was stumbling over herself. She leans up against the vending machine, hoping that it makes her look cool. "Hey, have you ever played that Pokémon Go game?"

Santana blushes and rubs the back of her neck nervously. "Is anyone still even playing that?"

"Well, I've been out sick so I missed actually going out and catching some Pokémon," Charlie responds fishing out her phone. "I'm also not very good at this whole catching Pokémon thing," Charlie admits turning the game on. She had tried to do it on her own, but the game was rather boring and Quinn refused to help her. "I mean all my Pokémon are super weak, and I only have rats and bugs."

"Oh—you have to keep catching the same Pokémon over again, and as you do they keep getting stronger and stronger. I mean that's how you evolve them you know," Santana says biting her lip. Going Pokémon hunting sounded like more fun than sitting around and listening to people butcher popular songs. "You should take Fuzzbutt—he's actually a really good partner for these things. He made sure I didn't just wander out into the street." Santana pulls out her phone to open up the app.

"Cool, nice TARDIS." Charlie asks, pointing to the back of her phone.

"You watch the show?"

"Yeah. Somebody recommended it to me and I got kind of hooked. I watched a bunch of cool episodes, but right now I'm in the middle of the first season."

"Nine isn't my favorite doctor."

"Yeah, I liked the other guy better." Charlie grins broadly. "Are you sure you're related to Rachel?"

Santana smiled, "She's my stepsister—I can't believe that you're identical twins with Quinn—I mean I've heard a lot of horror stories."

"Quinn's a bitch, I'm the fun one," Charlie flashes Santana a huge smile and motions for her phone. "Here if you need anything you can give me a call, or text or whatever. Maybe we can hang out somewhere cool. Maybe do some Pokémon hunting together sometime."

"That'd be cool." Santana agrees as Charlie punches in her phone number. She swallows unsure what the protocol is for something like this. Does she text Charlie immediately, does she wait a few days? She had never done this before. Charlie was probably one of the _cool_ kids at McKinley, not that it mattered she was still at Caramel, but she might actually have a friend.

Charlie studied Santana for a moment and waves her phone, "Your number? I'll probably end up bombarding you with texts because I don't want to be here either."

"Oh, right," Santana flushes and texts Charlie a simple emoji. "I'm glad it's not just a me thing you know."

"It's show choir," Charlie shakes her head. "It's not just a _you_ thing, it's an everyone in that audience thing. Thanks," Charlie says as she makes Santana a contact. "Anyway, you should probably head back. I'm going to go make fun of Quinn, because that's what sisters are supposed to do."

"Yeah." Santana agrees, hanging back a little to follow Charlie toward the auditorium. Her eyes drift down to Charlie's ass and she feels her mouth go dry.

She is _so_ gay.

She stumbles when Charlie catches her, turning to send a wink over her shoulder. "Hope you enjoy the show. And I don't mean the one in the auditorium."

Santana stops dumbfounded as Charlie saunters away, stunned. Did that really just happen?

It takes almost a minute before Santana realizes she is still standing alone in the dimly lit hallway. Quickly, she shakes her head and makes her way back to the auditorium.

Her dad raises his brow, "I thought you had abandoned me," he whispers at her. Noting the bag of Oreos in her hand, he quickly grabs them and grins. Shelby wasn't around to comment which meant that his daughter was spoiling him.

"I thought about it," Santana responds flicking her eyes over the audience hoping to maybe catch a glimpse of Charlie in the theater. She frowns slightly when she doesn't see her, "I just got distracted I met—" Santana glances down at her phone and smiles as it vibrates. "A new friend," Santana finishes glancing at her dad who was studying her curiously.


	10. Chapter 10

"No."

"What do you mean _no_. I've done all my homework, finished all my assigned reading—"

"Reading the Sparknotes version of the book isn't the same thing as reading it," Quinn interrupted her twin from where she was flopped on the couch her nose buried in a book. "Also I'm sure you copied all my math homework."

Charlie resisted the urge to flip her off, "Says who? You? My grades are higher than yours in math, I went through your work and marked the ones you got incorrect. If anything I was helping you." Charlie sneered. Now Quinn's essays on the other hand— she had definitely copied those.

Russell rubbed his temples, he didn't know why he had thought it was a good idea to have kids. It could just be him and Judy enjoying their lives together, maybe he could retire early and move into the log cabin he had always wanted. Instead he had to deal with the twin terrors. "The answer is no Charlie. It will always be no. That's not going to change any time soon."

"Well, I'll just ask aunt Cassandra then," Charlie retorted petulantly. She was not her aunt Cassandra's favorite, but that didn't matter. She knew how to pester her enough until she said yes. She smirks, not knowing why she hadn't thought of this sooner. Now she could show Santana her wolf side and everything would be right with the world. There was no point in hiding things from her soon to be mate.

Russell grinds his teeth. "You will _not_."

Charlie bristles. "If you won't show me how to change by _myself_ then I guess I have to." Her alpha is proud and though part of her wants to submit to her father's growl, there's a much larger part that just wants Santana.

"Domesticated by a fifteen-year-old," Quinn rolls her eyes. "Let me remind you that we mate for life, and she's _fifteen_. Fifteen and _human_."

Charlie crosses her arms over her chest. She was only two years older than Santana. Sure she turned eighteen in a few months but that didn't matter. "I fail to see the—"

"Really? You fail to see how this could be a disaster? You want to reveal yourself to a fifteen-year-old girl, who took care of you while you were injured." Russell snapped in an exasperated tone.

"First of all, she's a sophomore so she's only like a grade behind me."

"You're almost eighteen—"

"And she's my _mate_. I don't see what the big deal is. I just want to be with her—"

"She's _fifteen_. She's underage. Maybe if she was another werewolf, I'd roll my eyes and buy you a box of condoms so you could at least wait till she had graduated. But she's a human, she knows nothing of our customs. Let alone your _unique_ physiology. She will never truly be one of us, you know how difficult it is to _turn_ a human. The vast majority die. Stop thinking with your dick, I changed your diapers it's hardly that impressive."

Judy popped her head out from the kitchen and studied the three alpha's in the room, you could cut the tension with a knife and the last thing she needed was for Russell to beat Charlie into submission if she challenged him. Charlie was stubborn, both her children were, they were after all alphas. They simply needed to appeal to Charlie's wolf and her human half. Charlie had never exactly been interested in other women to begin with, which meant that it was possible that this was merely a crush and not something more. They had spent weeks together. "Charlie, you only really know her as a wolf. I understand you feel drawn to her, she saved you. But I thought your father taught you better than this, it seems like you're putting your needs before this—Santana person. I mean and it's rather worrying that you know more about her than she does about you. Don't you think and now you want to pressure her into sex and even more important a huge decision? You know her as a wolf, are you sure you're not taking advantage of her?"

"I—it's not like that I just—" Charlie huffs and throws her hands up in the air. She didn't know how to handle her mother's questions. She didn't like when her mother did that thing where she _made sense_. It was _terrible_ and it generally meant that she was acting like an ass. "So what am I supposed to do? She wants to play with _me_—"

"Gross, no wants to hear about your sex life." Quinn made a face.

Charlie threw a pillow at Quinn and then flipped her off. "My wolf and I said that she could. I can't go back on my word."

Russell groaned, they really should have never had kids. They made life far more difficult than it had to be. He was certainly going to insist that they start getting their children to interact with other packs, to see if something popped. It hadn't before but his children couldn't _mate_ with humans. They just couldn't. "Clearly you didn't think this through."

"Dad."

"Charlie what do you expect me to do? I can't separate your beast from your human side. You also can't be in two places at once. So how am I supposed to fix the mess you got yourself into? Let's not forget that changing you back and forth will be tremendously painful for you especially the further we are away from a full moon."

"Make Quinn take me; I don't care about how much it hurts. She _needs_ me."

"Why the fuck do I want to help you?" Quinn asked finally pulling her attention away from her book.

Charlie frowned, "I would totally do the same for you." Quinn scoffed at this and turned her attention back to her book. Charlie rolled her eyes, "Because Santana is Rachel's half-sister, and Rachel will probably spy on you to make sure that you aren't corrupting poor innocent Santana. You'll have all Rachel's attention on you for days. Plus, Santana likes to dress me up soo—"

"Fine. But only because I'm a good sister," Quinn interrupts. Taking pictures of Charlie so she could have blackmail material would be fun.

~O~

Santana didn't see the curious glances from the rest of her family when she looked at her phone for what felt like the millionth time. Even though she thought she was discreet she was really bad at it.

Carlos put his fork down and clears his throat, he was trying his hardest to keep the displeasure off his face. Santana wasn't a _texter_. She just wasn't, she barely answered his texts and this _eagerness_ could only mean one thing. He narrowed his eyes slightly, _boys_. "So when are we going to meet him?"

Santana blinked and looked up at her father, crinkling her nose. "What are you talking about? Meet who?"

Shelby intervened immediately, this would take a delicate hand. "Your new friend, you've been texting with this mystery person for a few days ever since regionals."

Santana blushes and tries to think of a potential response. "It's nobody—"

"Is it someone from Vocal Adrenaline—if it's Jesse I suggest that you forget about it," Rachel informs her knowingly. "Jesse and I may be close friends but I know that boy and he isn't known to be _faithful_. I'm sure he doesn't even know what it means, but I saw him looking at you the other day and I told him to stay away—"

"Gross. It's not Jesse. It's not a guy, I told you dad I made a friend at regionals. It's a girl—"

"Good! That's good," Carlos nods relaxing immediately.

Shelby opened her mouth to point out that Santana might be coming out to them but decided to drop it, if Santana was indeed gay she would have to come out on her own time. "Well, I'm glad you're making friends Santana. What's her name?"

Santana picked at her phone, Charlie had mentioned soccer practice, and she knew that it was sort of pathetic to be waiting for her to text or call. "Um, it's someone at McKinley, it's no big deal we just sort of like the same things. She's totally getting into Doctor Who and I'm trying to get her to watch Don't Blink. We just talk about stuff like that, I'm trying to get her to read comics and stuff, but it's hard to tell her which one to pick up."

Rachel crinkled her nose, "As long as it's not that _horrible_ Quinn Fabray." Rachel's frown deepened when Santana didn't respond right away and started to pick at her food some more. "_Santana_, she's my _mortal enemy_."

"It's not _Quinn_," Santana feels her cheeks heat up and hopes that the others can't tell how badly she's blushing. "It's her sister. Charlie."

"Charlie? Like the dog?"

"Apparently they're both named Charlie." Santana shrugs. "It seems like some sort of inside joke, she probably thought it was a riot when they were kids or something."

"Personally I don't think you should have anything to do with that _family_. You saw what her sister did to me! I don't want you to get hurt."

"She's not going to _hurt _me, she just shares my interests and feelings about certain things including show choir. Plus, she promised that I could see Fuzzbutt again assuming he doesn't run off again. It seems to be a thing he does, her dad's retraining him or something." Santana insisted looking at her dad.

Rachel rolled her eyes, "This is probably some convoluted plot to get at me. Those Fabray's are _evil_."

"Well, invite her over to the house, I'd like to meet her. It's good that you're making friends mija." Carlos said, completely dismissing Rachel's rhetoric as if it were nothing.

Santana raised a brow, she wasn't quite sure her parents would approve. "Well I can ask but she had pneumonia and her parents have put her under house arrest until she finishes her homework and finishes catching up with her class."

"Well, it seems that her parents know what's important in life, she at least seems to come from a _good_ family," Shelby offers to Carlos.

"Fine but I'd still like to meet her. I mean her sister did dump a slushy on Rachel after all. I don't want this to be some sort of cruel prank."

Santana frowned just as her phone buzzed. "Because I can't make any friends?" She shoves her plate forward and gets up. It was such bullshit; they had dragged to bumfuck Ohio to some weird art school that gave way to much credence to a show choir. She was just getting used to the weirdos at school and now they were acting like she was some sort of leper who couldn't make friends. She'd had friends back in Chicago, and she had made friends with Charlie, or was in the process of it. "I'm going to my room." She announced before storming away. Her family was the _worst_.


	11. Chapter 11

Santana sighed as she slid her bag onto her shoulder and headed toward the exit. She was going to have to bike home today. Shelby and Rachel were practicing until late and her dad was busy. Since she didn't want to spend her Friday afternoon listening to Vocal Adrenaline, she was just going to head home for another boring lonely Friday night. Maybe when she finally turned sixteen she would be able to have a bit more fun; then she could drive herself wherever she wanted to go. She opens her bag and grabs the keys to her bike lock and heads outside following the throng of students who were all eager to start their weekends.

The moment she can she makes a beeline to her bike, she didn't want to hear about all the cool events that she wasn't invited to. She nearly trips, when she spots a familiar face standing beside the back rack. There stood Charlie leaning against a pillar, staring at her phone a look of concentration on her face. "Uh—Charlie? What are you doing here?" Santana calls out as she makes her way towards the older teenager.

"Attempting to catch a Snorlax, now shush," Charlie responds narrowing her eyes. This game was a scam. She hated things with micro transactions, and she hadn't been able to catch anything cool looking.

Santana's eyes widen and she immediately reaches for her phone and quickly opens up Pokemon Go. Sure enough there was a Snorlax just sitting there. "I've never seen one before," she flushes realizing how much of a geek she sounded like. But Charlie didn't seem to mind or notice for that matter. "You didn't come all the way to Akron to you know—find Pokemon did you?" Santana asked as she caught the wild Pokémon. It was a two-hour drive from Akron to Lima.

"No, I came all the way out to Akron to see you," Charlie puts her phone away and flashes Santana a smile. "Is that okay? I didn't want to go home and I didn't want to go to math class, and our history teacher is an idiot so I took some time off and decided to come hang out with you. I mean if you're busy—"

"I'm not!" Santana flushed when Charlie raised a brow. "I mean; I was just going to head home—" Santana grimaced inwardly. She didn't know how to make herself sound cool, and Charlie would probably find out that she was some _loser_ who had no friends.

Charlie raised a brow, she hadn't exactly thought this whole thing through, which seemed to be the story of her life these days. "Well, where do you normally hang out? We can go there."

"Oh—well—" Santana grimaced, she didn't really want to say she hung out at the library and you didn't take a girl to a comic book store. She didn't really want to scare Charlie away. "The mall?"

Charlie shrugged, the mall sounded okay to her. "Cool, maybe we can get something to eat. I'm _starving_. Maybe I can also pick up some new cleats—" Charlie pauses she knew Santana well enough—or at least her wolf did to know that Santana wasn't a mall person. She turns to her and squints, noting the nervous smile on her face and the fidget. "But, I'd rather you take me to where _you_ want to go not where you think I want to go. A mall is a mall, unless the Akron mall has rollercoasters in it."

"No, it doesn't have anything like that." Santana shifted the bag on her back nervously, "I mean I like going to the mall—I just—you came all the way to Akron and I don't want to bore you," she answers honestly.

"Well this is Vocal Adrenaline territory, you're not going to suggest that we go sit and watch Vocal Adrenaline practice are you? Cause then you're sort of on your own," Charlie teases.

Santana scoffed, "I said I didn't want to bore you, I have absolutely no intention of torturing you either."

"Shame, that could be interesting," Charlie says with a smirk, moving swiftly to catch Santana's phone before it hit the ground. "Careful now, however will you catch Pokémon if you drop your phone?" Her fingers brush against Santana's and she feels the spark between them. So it wasn't just her wolf that felt attached. That was good. "So where are we going? You're going to need to give me directions, I don't usually spend time in Akron, I'm afraid that random people are going to start bursting out into song and dance."

Santana smirks, "That would be terrifying, and I can assure you that they don't do that—"

_Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darling_

_You give love a bad name_

Santana groans, as Charlie whips around to watch Vocal Adrenaline start a performance in the parking lot. "I promise you that there are _normal_ people who live in Akron who think they're weird, and wish they'd stop doing that."

Charlie bit her lip as she watched them move through their steps, "At McKinley the football players dump them in slushy baths. Well they did until Quinn became captain, didn't really help their popularity or anything of the sort. But at least they weren't being dumped in dumpsters filled with slushy."

Santana glanced over at Charlie, she probably was one of those super popular kids that did stuff like that. She could practically _hear_ Rachel's voice warning her. "This isn't you know a prank i it? Like some weird way to get at Rachel?"

"Why would this be a prank? And I'm here to see you not the short one that sings far too much and has this weird thing with my twin sister. You know they made out at some weird Show Choir party right?"

Santana blinked, she hadn't known that. "Really?"

"Yeah, they played spin the bottle or something, Quinn spent the next three days bitching about it in graphic detail, with this weird smile on her face. So I imagine that this is some long-drawn out _foreplay_ between the two of them. Either way, I'm here because I want to be here with you this isn't a prank or anything."

Santana relaxes at those words for a moment, "Sorry, Rachel just—you know—" she flounders a bit. "I'm not really the most popular person at Caramel."

"So what? I'm hardly the most popular person at McKinley, that would be Quinn. As for family, I have a weird judgemental family as well—but how about you grab your bike and we head out. They're sort of creeping me the fuck out." Charlie gestures at Vocal Adrenaline.

Santana turns to look at Vocal Adrenaline only to notice that Rachel was glaring at her from where they were accepting their applause from the gathered crowd. "Yeah—let's get out of here before—"

"Santana! What are you doing?" Rachel called out making a beeline for her stepsister. What the hell was Quinn Fabray doing here? It was probably retaliation for tying with them at regionals. Clearly this was some form of psychological warfare and Quinn was trying to get into her head. It wasn't working. "You can't go off cavorting with the _enemy_. Quinn—"

If there was one thing that Charlie hated more than anything it was being mistaken for her twin sister. She had hated it when her mother had forced them into matching outfits when they were children and she wasn't a huge fan of it now. She didn't even _dress_ like Quinn. Instead of snapping at Rachel she turns to Santana and flashes her a sardonic smile, "Be honest, do I look like Quinn?"

Santana bit her lip trying not to laugh at the obvious irritation that Charlie was trying to hide. "No, I don't see the resemblance at all," she responds playing back.

"Finally!" Charlie grins and turns her attention back to Rachel. She was the one that wanted to feed her _vegetables_. As far as she was concerned Rachel needed to be investigated for animal cruelty. "You must be Rachel."

Rachel huffed, it wasn't Quinn. Quinn wouldn't be caught dead in torn jeans and a faded leather jacket. "Charlie then. How's the dog that Quinn stole from my sister? And who names a dog after themselves?"

Santana groaned, wishing the ground would swallow her whole. Rachel was embarrassing her, and worse a group of curious teenagers were gathering around them. "Rachel, it's no big deal we're just—"

"If you need a ride home, I can miss practice to take you home," Rachel insists.

"Well that would put a damper on our date," Charlie mused out loud. "My dog is fine thank you for asking."

Rachel's eyes nearly bugged out of her head, "You're _dating her_?"

"No. I mean—we're just friends—I mean—I'd like—" Santana sputtered, this was a _nightmare_. Why couldn't Rachel just leave her alone?

"Santana—"

"We're friends, and I came all the way from Lima to hang out with Santana and get new cleats. I don't come to Akron the people here burst out into song and dance at weird and inappropriate times," Charlie said simply, saving Santana. She could see that she was getting flustered and she needed to end this. Santana wasn't the only one getting agitated. "If you want to go harass Quinn and make her squirm, go for it. I don't really care about your weird show choir rivalry. It's weird, this whole thing is weird. All I know is that I want to take Santana out for a good time, and possibly get something to eat because I am really hungry right now. I mean you're free to be overprotective if you want and follow us around to make sure that I don't do anything untoward, but I want to go have some fun with my friend, and I'll probably be sticking around for as long as Santana wants me to."

"She doesn't want to go with you! You Fabray's are _bad news_."

Santana scowled this was getting ridiculous, and she really hoped that she wasn't making the wrong decision. But she _wanted_ to go with Charlie, yeah there was that hint of danger behind Charlie's eyes. And there were times when there seemed to be something primal lurking right underneath the surface. But Charlie was really her first friend in Ohio and she wasn't ready to let that go. "I'm right here Rachel and yeah, I _do _want to go with her. So that's what I'm going to do." Santana snaps at her, she moves to unlock her bike and pushes it towards Charlie who is still standing there studying Rachel. "There is somewhere that I do want to go actually."

Charlie turns to look at her and smiles, "Sure, but seriously can we get something to eat first?"

Santana nods, that seemed fair to her. "Do you have room in your car for my bike?"

Charlie studied the bike for a moment, she could probably fit in the trunk if she was clever. "We'll make it work," she promises moving to walk beside her. Despite her words earlier, this wasn't a _date_. This was merely the first time that she was hanging out with Santana as a _human_. Sure, Santana seemed to get flustered while talking to her and seemed to enjoy staring at her ass, but that didn't mean anything. Lust was easy, what she wanted was for Santana to _like _her. To want to be with her more than anything. Santana needed to know her and to _trust _her before she sprung the whole '_I'm a werewolf_' on her.


	12. Chapter 12

Santana flicked her eyes over to Charlie who was currently eating a Popsicle, her afternoon had actually been rather fun. Charlie wasn't some serial killer, and yeah they had spent a bit more time at the mall then she would have liked but it seemed Charlie was very particular about what she put on her feet. Normally something like that would have been boring but Charlie had kept her engaged and let her pick out the colors. Though the one thing that she had noticed was that Charlie seemed to be a bottomless pit. "This is it," Santana calls out pointing to their driveway and leans back in the chair as Charlie turns into it and parks the car.

The place smelled familiar to her, "You have a nice house—I mean it looks nice from the outside—" Charlie fumbles and smiles at Santana. "Here let me help you with your things."

"Thanks, I mean you don't have to—I mean it's just my bag and my bike."

"And all the comics you bought," Charlie adds, smiling when Santana's face reddens slightly.

"They were having a sale—" Santana tries, and looks at the two boxes filled with books and movies. She may have gone a bit overboard with the whole thing, and she wasn't quite sure what Charlie thought about it. She had seemed lost a few times when she tried to explain the difference between the X-men and Inhumans, or why the comic book version of The Walking dead was _so _much better than the television show. "You're probably totally weirded out by this whole thing aren't you?"

"You're passionate about something, and honestly I think you're rather cute when you're geeking out about superheroes. Your eyes get animated and they like—I don't know dance." Charlie shrugs stepping out of her car. "I wish I was that passionate about things, or I knew as much as you did." Charlie opened up the trunk of her car so Santana could grab her bike.

Santana shifts, "I'm sure you're passionate about things—soccer? We did spend a good forty-five minutes debating which pair of cleats look good on your feet and make you feel like you're running on a cloud. You must practice a lot."

Charlie shrugs, she hadn't been to practice in two months, which only meant that she wasn't going to play in any of the games. It was disappointing but she could see it coming. She probably _should_ head back to practice, but as far as she was concerned there were more pressing concerns. "I can think of a few things I can be passionate about." Charlie flashes Santana a grin before opening her car door and grabbing the two big boxes filled with comics.

It took Santana a moment before she realized the implication of Charlie's words and turned a bright red. She was still unsure if Charlie was merely a flirt, or if she was actually interested in her. Her words said one thing but her actions said another. She was certain that Charlie was going to kiss her earlier today, but she hadn't. Nothing had happened, and she couldn't help but wonder if it was all in her head. "Tease," she mumbled under her breath.

"I don't have to be," Charlie responds without thinking. She winces, she couldn't help that her hearing even when she was human was good.

"Yeah, definitely a tease," Santana said shaking her head. Charlie was a flirt, she probably couldn't even help herself. She heads to the garage so she can put her bike inside when the porch light comes on, causing her to freeze. She hadn't seen her dad's truck which probably meant that he was working late or on call or something. Which was for the best because she wasn't sure how he would react to Charlie.

Charlie tilts her head when the door opens and Shelby steps out onto the porch and her eyes immediately find Rachel lurking behind her. She sighed, she really didn't want any trouble. She'd been good more or less and she had actually had fun with Santana. Sure Santana talked about a lot of stuff that she didn't quite get but she felt good around her, calmer. All the noise in her head was quiet around Santana and she could finally think. "Is that your mom?"

"Step-mother," Santana corrected frowning at Shelby.

"Evil step-mother? You know like in Cinderella?" Santana snorted at this statement. "Don't worry, I know what you look like so if you ever lose a shoe, I'll find you."

Santana grinned, "I know right? He has this wonderful time with this girl, next day can't remember what she looked like, never bothered to ask for her name—the entire last act of that story doesn't make any sense."

"I imagine he was very drunk and on a copious amount of drugs during the ball, only explanation." Charlie shrugs.

"Well, Cinderella was dressed up and probably had her face done—"

"Please, I'd still recognize you," Charlie insists as Santana puts her bike away and looks up at the porch. Shelby is attempting to look stern and motherly at the same time. She's not surprised given the fact that Rachel probably raved for a few hours about what a terrible influence on her. "Your stepmom is watching me like I'm a criminal."

Santana shrugs, Shelby didn't normally tell her what to do that was her father. "Well, are you a criminal?" Santana asks offering to take a box from Charlie who shakes her head.

"You're only a criminal if you've been caught is what my dad always says," Charlie shrugs. "I realize I should probably be a bit more worried about what that means coming from him, but considering that he constantly eats all the cookies in the house, I think it's relatively benign."

"So you have nothing to worry about then right? But then again she might think you're a spy for New Directions." Santana chuckles at the idea, she had seen how uncomfortable it all made her. "I'm sorry in advance if she gives you the third degree," Santana whispers to Charlie. "Hey Shelby—what's going on?"

"Do you have any idea what time it is Santana? It's already getting dark outside and you didn't answer any of my calls."

"Sorry, I switched off my phone when Rachel wouldn't stop calling." Santana shot Rachel a look. "I was with Charlie, we went to the mall and the comic book store. She's not a cannibal or anything like that. Though I did see how she demolished those two burgers—"

"I skipped lunch and I like to tell myself that I'm going to keep growing," Charlie insists immediately. When Shelby turns to look at her she puts on her most charming smile, "Hello, I'm Charlie. I'd shake your hand but—" Charlie shakes the boxes slightly that are in her hand.

Shelby nodded and slipped a polite smile onto her face, "Shouldn't you be heading back to Lima? It's getting rather late."

"_Shelby_," Santana hissed mortified.

"Santana it's getting dark and I don't feel comfortable with her driving back at night," Shelby pointed out, it really did have nothing to do with the fact that Rachel was certain that she was a spy.

"Are you—?"

"It's fine Santana, I'll talk to you when I get home. Let me just put these down and I'll be out of your hair." Charlie moves towards the stairs and puts the boxes down on the bottom step. She straightens up and flicks her eyes to Shelby for a moment trying to keep her face neutral. "Thanks for taking such good care of my dog, my parents want to know how much it cost to keep him for the month, they plan to reimburse you." Her parents planned no such thing last time she checked, her father was a cheap-ass. "I know feeding him is a bit of a task."

Shelby's face softened for a moment, "You don't have to do that, and it was our pleasure. You can come back anytime you want Charlie, I just want you to be safe."

"_What_?"

Shelby ignored Rachel who looked like she was about to have a conniption. "Drive home safely."

"I will." Charlie glanced at Santana who still looked annoyed. "We can text tonight if you want, I should probably get home anyway before my dad eats all my food, or my mom stats to worry."

Santana nods, "I'll walk you to your car, unless that's not allowed anymore," she shot a look at Shelby who rolled her eyes and nodded. Immediately she follows Charlie. "I'm sorry about that, they're just—"

"My parents are overprotective too Santana. It's alright, I get it. They probably have already sent out the search party looking for me," Charlie opened the car door. It made sense given her disappearance lately, her parents were jumpy. "I'll see you soon, I had fun so we should definitely do this again."

"Yeah—" Santana hesitates for a moment. "Maybe an actual date?" She tries to keep her face neutral as she waits for an answer, Charlie was a tease, she recognized this but she had to know if Charlie just wanted to be friends or if there was something between them. She sees the hesitation on Charlie's face. "It's fine, I like hanging out with you just fine—"

"You're fifteen and I'm turning eighteen soon." Charlie points out after a moment. She winces at her words when she can practically feel her wolf underneath the surface. Of course it wanted control, but she needed to use her head. "So I guess the question is when do you turn sixteen?"

It wasn't a no, Charlie wasn't saying no to her, and it sort of made sense. She just didn't want to deal with any drama based on their slight age difference. "In a couple of months," Santana manages to get out. "November."

"Well then we can go on our first date then," Charlie winks at her. "Now I really should get going," her wolf was impatient, it had always been but her mother was right. This was the right call, she needed to trust Santana and Santana needed to understand that she'd never hurt her.


	13. Chapter 13

"I'm just _saying_ that these _people_ barely use _Facebook_, let alone Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat or any other social media outlet. We're _teenagers_, who _doesn't_ have one? Seriously Santana, I'm telling you that there is something _off_ with that family."

"I think you're being judgmental; I think all that stuff is _stupid_. Why would you put all that personal information on the internet where everyone can see? If anything that just makes me like her more, she's not like you," Santana smiles. "Besides, I get to see Fuzzbutt again and that's all that matters."

Rachel frowned, "You're not listening to me, we're _sisters_—"

"_Step_-sisters. You're only here because my dad didn't have time to take me and Shelby had to talk about your outfits for nationals. Trust me I didn't want you here." Santana snaps at Rachel. As far as she was concerned it was Rachel's fault that they were in this mess to begin with. Though if Rachel hadn't been Rachel she wouldn't haven't met Charlie, who in a few months would be her girlfriend.

Rachel's cheeks flush at that statement and she looks at Santana, "We're sisters, and I know that it's hard to adjust to this whole new situation, but I'm only trying to protect you. I don't want to see you get hurt. That family is trouble—"

"Which is why you made out with her?" Santana interrupts. "Yeah, I know about that. Look, just leave me out of your weird thing with Quinn. I don't know what's up with that and I don't _want to _know. I like Charlie and she likes me."

"I didn't—fine I did, but it's obvious that Quinn enjoys playing the _bad_-girl. Her sister is obviously no different, the two of them are _heartbreakers_. She's going to hurt you Santana and I don't want that for you."

"Of course there's a time limit on our relationship, she's probably going to go to university far away and leave me in Akron. I'm not stupid Rachel, I'm a realist, we could break up."

"Worse, she could _sabotage _Vocal Adrenaline." Rachel emphasizes.

"How is that worse?" Santana pinches the brow of her nose. "Look Rachel. I _like_ Charlie. The fact that you don't? It makes her _even better_ in my book." Santana relaxed when they pulled into the parking lot and spotted a familiar dog laying on the ground beside a park bench, looking absolutely miserable. "Thanks for the ride Rachel, I'll see you in an hour."

"Is that _Quinn_?" Rachel's eyes narrowed as she spotted her arch nemesis laying on the park bench reading a book. "What is—" Rachel frowns when Santana bolts and she watches as the wolf stands at attention and begins to run towards Santana.

"Fuzzbutt!" Santana squeals just as the huge dog pounces on her and knocks her back.

Rachel pulls the car into park and slips out, crossing her arms over her chest she marches up to Quinn who is still laying on that bench. "What is the meaning of this?"

Quinn doesn't look up from the book she's reading. "I believe your sister is playing with my—dog."

"No." Rachel stomps her foot, frustrated by Quinn's easy dismissal. "I mean, what are _you _doing here? Where's Charlie."

Quinn points over to the pair where Santana is rubbing Fuzz Butt's belly animatedly. "Over there?"

"_No. _You know that's not what I mean! Where is your sister? Are you here to spy on us?"

Finally, Quinn looks up, unimpressed. "As if I don't have anything better to do? Charlie couldn't make it because she had some school thing. She asked me to bring the dog."

But something pinged Rachel's psychic senses. "You're lying."

"I'm lying about spending my entire afternoon letting your sister play with my dog?"

Hearing the question, Rachel had to admit that it sounded ridiculous. But something about this entire scenario was _off. _She had seen way too many movies to think that things like this happened by pure coincidence. "I don't trust you."

"Well then if this _was_ some elaborate ruse just to get you to trust me, I clearly failed." Quinn retorts dryly, not even bothering to try to hide her eye roll.

Rachel opens her mouth to retort but can't think of anything witty to say. Quinn is just so _frustrating_. It drove her crazy. "Well if you think I'm going to leave my _sister_ here alone with you then you have another thing coming!"

Quinn hums and turns back to her book, "Whatever have fun waiting for the world to end Chicken Little."

"Excuse me!"

"Chicken Little, the little chicken that thought the sky was falling. It wasn't. You're being paranoid. Normally I'd find it funny, and I'd probably fuck with you too, but I'm busy reading. You're being loud and annoying. My dog is currently dragging your sister into the wooded area to probably go hunting for squirrels or you know to eat her. I'm not sure, aren't you supposed to be babysitting?"

Rachel whips around and her eyes widen. "Santana! Stay out of the woods, I need to be able to see you!"

"You're not my _mother_ or my father," Santana snaps back, but she grips Fuzzbutt's collar and pulls him back. "Come on I brought a ball, let's play fetch."

Quinn watches as Santana throws a small tennis ball down the field and smirks mostly to herself, she half expects Charlie to go get it but Charlie just stares at Santana like she's lost her mind. "He doesn't _do_ tennis balls; it has to look like an animal or it has to be bright."

"What type of dog doesn't play _fetch_?"

Quinn ignores the question and gestures to the bag on the bench beside her, calling over to Santana. "Charlie packed some treats and toys if you want them."

Santana shrugs and engages Fuzzbutt in some chasing game.

Rachel scowled and stomps her foot again, "I didn't come here to be _ignored_."

"I came here to read my book and look after my dog. No one said that I had to give you any of my time."

"You _slushied _me."

"You stole my dog, so as far as I see it, we're even."

"I didn't steal your—" Rachel frowned. "He doesn't even like me!"

Quinn smirked, "Did you try and feed him vegan food?"

"It's a perfectly acceptable diet—"

Quinn finally sat up and let out a low whistle that had Charlie turn to her and slowly trot over to see what she wanted. "_Sit_," Quinn says and frowns at Charlie's clear defiance. She's about to repeat the command when Charlie sits down. She would deal with it later, but right now she wanted to make a point. She lifts up Charlie's upper lip and points at her massive canines. "See these? They aren't fangs, they're _canines. _His molars are jagged. That means my dog is a _carnivore_. Sure he needs _some_ grains and vegetables but _he eats meat_."

Charlie shakes Quinn's hand out of her mouth and then shakes her entire body all the way down to her tail. Without waiting for permission she turns and heads straight back towards Santana who was waiting patiently.

"Don't try and force my dog into your crappy dietary choices."

"It's a _healthy _dietary choice! You don't know—"

"I don't want to hear it. Go talk to your hippie friends about it Rachel. I'm going back to my book."

It's so _rude_ and Rachel's not sure why she's surprised. But she's not about to let Quinn get the best of her. "Fine. Whatever. I'll go wait in the car."

"Whatever," Quinn said with a shrug turning the page. She smiles to herself as she watches Rachel turn around and march back to her car. Well perhaps she could do this for Charlie a few more times if it meant getting to irritate the fuck out of Rachel.


	14. Chapter 14

Being a werewolf was _difficult_. The full moon, the pheromones, the need to eat copious amounts of meat and food because her metabolism was insanely high. It made the whole thing difficult. Being a werewolf and a hormonal teenager at the same time, was downright impossible. High School _sucked_, though maybe it was just McKinley.

With her heightened sense of smell, and hearing she could hear things that she didn't want to, she could smell things that she didn't want to. Those pheromones that bothered her already, it was worse because she _was_ a teenager. It was like a thick soup, and for the most part that gave her a headache. She was moody all the time, and she was unsure if it was because she was a teenager or if it was her inner wolf.

It was confusing to separate what was really her and what was the animal living under her skin, the only thing that they agreed on, was that sleeping, sex and food were the best things ever. Not that she had ever _had _sex, unless you counted her hand, because if you did then she was a regular savant.

Santana was _complicated_. It was also something that they didn't agree on. Which was why she _needed_ to be on her best behavior around her at all times. The thoughts she had were bordering on criminal half the time. Santana was fifteen, and she wasn't a wolf. She didn't even know about her body being different. If Santana had been a werewolf none of this would matter. They would have mated and all those criminal thoughts—well she'd be doing them with Santana.

"You are _incredibly_ lucky that you're my best player, if it was _anyone_ else and we didn't have to go to state championships this year, I swear your ass would be _riding_ the bench so hard you'd get splinters."

Charlie flicked her eyes over to her Coach, Roz Washington and gave a mock salute before promptly tuning her out. She was naturally athletic and even though Quinn mocked her for chasing balls it helped her control her urges. Or at the very least it gave her a safe space to let out her pent up aggression and animal instincts in a civilized manner. Which was _why_ she was hoping that Santana wasn't going to show up today. She wasn't quite sure if she could contain herself.

"_Charlie_."

"Listening," Charlie flicked her eyes back to Coach Washington.

Roz frowned, "Skipping practice and games hasn't endeared yourself to me, now if you aren't going to listen now I promise you that I'll make you run laps until you hurl, then I'll make you continue till you lose a lung. Run till you drop."

"You do remember that I had _pneumonia,_ right? I had a doctor's note and everything," Charlie shook her head. "It doesn't matter now, what matters is that I feel okay, and if you want me to score five points I can do that." The lying came easy to her. She had brought in a doctor's note, there was a community of them, police, doctors, lawyers, getting a fake doctor's note had been easy. But she didn't want to _lie_ to Santana, it was another thing that they sort of agreed upon. Lying didn't feel good, but she knew better. It had been drilled into her to protect the secret at all cost.

Roz twitched, if she wasn't so adamant about beating Sue Sylvester's record then she would have kicked Charlie of the team ages ago. She didn't believe for a second that Charlie had pneumonia, in fact there was something odd about her star player, no one was _that_ athletic at that age, especially someone who apparently had psoriasis and needed to change alone. The whole thing was suspicious. "Caramel High, has been undefeated this year, and we _need_ to beat them if we're going to slide into second place. Which means that we play as a team, and we keep running. You don't get to stop moving for the entire ninety minutes, we need to keep our defenses tight, if I see any of you losing your marks then I'll make a note of it and you'll be running laps till you collapse. I want to see at least three points if that's not the case then you'll all run laps till you collapse—" Roz frowned when Charlie slipped her headphones on. It was a shame that you weren't allowed to smack students anymore. Even with all of her problems Charlie would score three times, of that she knew.

~O~

Santana sighs and shuts her locker, rolling her eyes at the impromptu singing break that seems to have popped up near her locker.

This school was so weird.

She carefully avoids as many of the show choir weirdos as she can and weaves her way toward their nest. It's unfortunate, but Shelby is her ride home and her office is considered holy ground by all of the Vocal Adrenaline cult members. But with the chain on her bike broken, she was going to need a ride home and Shelby had promised her a ride before practice started and she hoped that she hadn't forgotten.

Knocking on the door she pauses for a moment before poking her head inside, "Shelby?"

Shelby glanced up from where she was currently looking over sheet music, "Santana! What are you—I promised to take you home right." She glances around her messy desk for her keys. "Sorry, I just get so absorbed in my work, I'll meet you by the car. I just need to tell Jesse and Rachel to hold the fort till I get back."

"Right—" Santana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'll meet you by the car," she sighed. Normally this was when she'd be texting Charlie but she apparently had some soccer game today. She turns and heads to the parking lot, it was a good thing she had decided to remind Shelby or she'd be waiting outside for a while.

She makes her way to the side entrance where the teacher parking is and wracks her brain for where Shelby normally parks. She thinks it's somewhat close to the soccer field, but she's sure she's got enough time that she can wander the parking lot before Shelby even leaves her office.

She mostly ignores the bus parked in front of the entrance for the soccer field and scans the area for Shelby's car. It would be just her luck that the bus has Shelby blocked in, so she figures that maybe she should check that first. Just as she rounds the corner, she stops and feels her jaw drop as Charlie jumps off the bus and slowly makes her way toward the locker rooms.

Charlie must be in the zone because She's got her headphones in and looks far more serious than Santana has ever seen her. She's trailed by other McKinley soccer players and who she assumed was the coach. She briefly wondered why Charlie hadn't informed her that she was going to be playing at Caramel. She tucks it away, and bites her lip. A soccer game would be considerably more interesting than spending a few hours doing homework. She would tell Shelby that she would simply watch the game. She had after all spent nearly thirty minutes watching Charlie debate about the color of her cleats.

"Ready to go Santana?"

Santana turned to see Shelby holding her keys up proudly, "Uh—I didn't know that there was a soccer game today and I kind of want to watch the game, you know—cheer on Carmel."

"_Charlie_! What the fuck?"

Santana whipped her head towards the crowd of soccer players to see that Charlie had stopped suddenly and someone had walked into her back. Suddenly Charlie tilts her head in their general direction and she can feel those sharp hazel eyes focused on her. A slow lazy smile appeared on her face, before she winked at her and continued on her way to the locker room.

Shelby watches the interchange with a knowing smirk. But exactly _what_ she thinks she knows, Santana isn't sure. "What?"

"Nothing." Shelby shrugs, but her smirk only gets more infuriating.

"Fine. Does that mean I can stay?"

"Well it is a school event, and I think it's wonderful that you want to cheer on 'Caramel'. Just remember that this is Vocal Adrenaline territory."

"Oh god, is our soccer team going to burst out into song?"

"It's a distinct possibility." Shelby admits.

"That's a _horrifying_ thought." Santana muttered. What was with all the singing? No wonder Charlie didn't want to show up at Caramel. "It's a _soccer_ game. What's singing going to do? Scare them off?"

Shelby smiled, "Why don't you go find out. I hear our soccer team is undefeated."

Santana didn't need to be told twice, she immediately jogged to the soccer field. She honestly didn't care if McKinley watched, she just wanted to watch her soon to be girlfriend. Well she _hoped_ that was still the case. Even if it wasn't she was sure watching Charlie sweat and stretch would be rather enlightening. She did seem athletic, it was the way she carried herself.

"_Charlie_, you're leading the warm up." Roz closed her eyes as she watched Charlie do a handstand. "Stop showing off, and start running. I will bench you!"

"Fine, try and keep up," Charlie said landing on her feet as she begun to jog around their half of the field. Her face shifted and she relaxed when the rest of the team fell in line. Every move she made they followed, when she sped up they did as well. The feeling was indescribable for her. This was what it felt to lead a pack. "Passing next and Avery, get in net and start doing your thing. We'll end with shots on net." Charlie said as they finished their third lap. She quickly slips on the armband that denotes her as captain and turns to her team. "Pair up."

Roz tossed Charlie the bag containing all the soccer balls and watched as Charlie handed them out, using her feet to accurately pass to each group. Even the one that was across the field, and smirked. Maybe she should let Charlie show off, Caramel was already focused on her star player. Charlie' was definitely in form today.

~O~

Santana's eyes were glued to the action in front of her, as the game was wrapping up. Charlie had scored five of McKinley's seven goals, she also had two assists for her perfectly timed passes. She was personally involved in most of their attacks. Which was probably why there were three defenders currently surrounding her trying to strip the ball from her. They were probably trying to stop her from scoring her sixth goal, but Charlie looked calm as she toyed with them. Would she get past them and go for goal or would she try and pass the ball and make a break for it. She seemed to be able to predict where the ball was going to be.

Charlie tilts her head and pops the ball onto her foot before flicking it upward causing it to lob over the defender's head lazily. As they look up she moves darting between two of the defenders and catching the ball on her foot as she suddenly breaks away.

"_Go!_" Santana yells hopping to her feet excitedly, she flushes when a few Caramel students turn to her.

"Really Santana? Cheering for the enemy? And you wonder why people think you're weird?" Rachel comments flatly shivering as she heads up the bleachers. "Practice is over let's go—"

"Game's almost over, go away." Santana snaps not taking her eyes off Charlie who suddenly passes the ball at the last second, as the goalie makes a dive for her feet.

It was just a tap, that was all that was needed and the ball bounced against the ground, rolling over the line and into the back of the net, just as the final whistle sounds.

Santana slumped into her seat as McKinley's bench emptied and swarmed Charlie and the person who had scored the goal. Charlie immediately ducked out of the celebrations and caught a water bottle that was tossed at her and took a few huge gulps before jogging over to her.

Charlie's beaming grin made Santana's chest clench and she tries to think of something cool to say. _Nice goal_. Or maybe, _you were awesome_. But she doesn't get the chance because as soon as Charlie is close enough she launches herself at Santana.

Santana doesn't even have time to catch her before Charlie's lips are on hers, pulling her close for a claiming pointed kiss. It's her _first_ kiss but Santana doesn't have time to wonder if she's doing it right because kissing Charlie feels amazing. And just as she's getting into it, Charlie's pulling away. She blinks in surprise, and watches as Charlie hops down the last three bleachers with ease and heads back to her team.

Rachel blinks and immediately grabs onto Santana's arm. "Are you okay! What was that?"

Santana opens her mouth and turns to Rachel, she was honestly speechless.

"We can totally report her for sexaul harassment—"

That seems to snap Santana out of it, "I was surprised is all, but trust me that was _very _much wanted," she sniffs indignantly, but immediately turns to see what Charlie was doing. She had seemed slightly out of it.

"What?" Charlie said grabbing duffel bag as her mind suddenly snapped back in place when she noticed that everyone was looking at her. She turns her attention to Santana and flashes her a huge grin before winking at her again. "Shouldn't we be going to shake their hand or something? We crushed them, but we need to be good sports about the whole thing."


	15. Chapter 15

Quinn Fabray, generally let her twin sister do whatever stupid thing she thought of. Ignoring Charlie was certainly easier than fighting her twin on very stupid, reckless thing that she did. A few broken bones never killed anyone.

It was especially easy because Charlie generally left her alone. Once upon a time they were probably closer, until they had both come to the realization that they were both alphas. Which certainly explained all the fights for dominance. It drove their parents crazy, which was why they had been given their own rooms. As far as she was concerned her parents were just as guilty as Charlie was, they excused nearly everything that Charlie did. Her twin sister was reckless and stupid, which was not a good combination for anyone, especially not a werewolf. But she left it alone, for the most part. She had been worried about her twin when she had been missing for several weeks but it was just back to normal these days. Which meant that Charlie would never learn, and if her parents weren't going to beat it into her, then she would simply have to show Charlie where the line was and what would happen if she crossed it.

She stops at the 'Do Not Enter' sign on Charlie's door, which only stops her for a second. Charlie had lost every right to privacy and she shoves Charlie's door open, ignoring the bang as the door hits the wall with force.

Charlie turns and frowns, "What the fuck—" she scrambles to her feet as Quinn pounces using her sister's momentum to throw her onto the ground. She immediately takes a step back to assess the situation as Quinn recovers. "What the hell is your problem this time?"

Quinn immediately steps into her twin's personal space and shoves her hard, "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Charlie rolled her eyes, and shoved Quinn back. This was how most of their little fights erupted, there would be broken furniture later. "No, should I?"

"You kissed her!"

Charlie grinned proudly, she was still replaying the kiss over and over in her head. "Yeah, I did." It felt good, her wolf was greedy and wanted more, she wanted to have all of Santana all to herself, but she had to wait and patience was not and had never been her strong suit. Charlie pauses for a moment, "Wait why do you care if I kissed her? You've kissed lots of girls. Honestly, you're a bit of a slut Quinn."

"I'm a slut! I've only kissed three girls!" Quinn hissed back.

"Exactly, total slut," Charlie nods as if it made total sense.

"You assaulted Santana with your mouth, so I'd rather be a slut as you call it then whatever you are right now." Quinn snaps back.

Charlie blinked, "I didn't do anything wrong Quinn. I kissed my soon to be girlfriend. Santana enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. Rachel on the other hand—" Charlie flashes Quinn a smile. "That's why you're here. I offended Rachel's delicate sensibilities."

"That's not why I'm here," Quinn lied with ease. "I'm here because you're a fucking idiot. She's human."

"So is Rachel and that didn't stop you from kissing her. It also hasn't stopped you from the weird fight-flirt thing you do," Charlie replies in a bored tone. "She's my mate. My wolf has chosen her, and honestly, I agree with my wolf. She's perfect."

"She's fifteen."

"She turns sixteen in like two weeks." Charlie shrugged.

"I kissed Rachel at a party, on a dare. It was not because I had any feelings for her. I'm not dating her, I am not going to date her. You want to know why? Because I'm not a fucking moron. Rachel is human. More importantly she's going to want to do somethings with me that involve me getting naked. How are you going to explain your body to Santana? How do you know she's still going to find you attractive?"

For a brief moment, Charlie hesitated, "It's fine Quinn, she'll be sixteen. She's a virgin, she'll probably want to take it slow or something. And if she doesn't I could tell her that I wanted to take it slow. Either way I'm not going to just hop into bed with her. In case you haven't noticed I'm not a slut."

"I've just kissed—" Quinn exhales, she wasn't going to fall into Charlie's trap and devolve. She needed to keep focused. "So, your plan is to just, surprise her when it comes time to have sex? Like tada even though you think I'm a girl I have a tiny dick."

"You know very well my dick isn't tiny," Charlie snaps at Quinn shoving her again growing agitated. "She'll accept me—"

"What proof do you have that she's going to do that?" Quinn points out. "We're wolves, and you know how rare and dangerous it is for us to turn a human into one of us, the vast majority die. So, what's your plan?"

"Maybe she won't care—"

"You can't mate with her without her knowing." Quinn reminded her. It was something deeply personal and Charlie couldn't just foist it on Santana because it was something she wanted. "You know that."

"I do—" Charlie scowled, she hated when Quinn was right. But she didn't understand, Santana was her mate. "I'll figure it out Quinn. I didn't need your unwarranted advice," she sniffs and immediately shoves her twin out of her room, slamming the door behind her. She didn't want Quinn to know that she was now worried. Maybe she could start by explaining her body, at least parts of it. If Santana rejected her then that would be it. She wasn't quite sure what she would do.

~O~

Rachel has been pointedly ignoring Santana for almost two days and Santana is pretty sure it has been the best two days of her life. At least, the best two days since Shelby married her dad. She would gladly put up with weeks of Rachel's withering glares if it meant a few hours of silence.

But alas, all good things must come to an end and she frowns when Rachel bursts through Santana's bedroom door.

"I've decided to forgive you. I've thought about and it wasn't your fault that Charlie Fabray assaulted your mouth with her own. I realized I was guilty of blaming the victim, when my annoyance should be focused on the person who assaulted you."

Santana stared at Rachel, "For the last time she didn't assault me. She kissed me and I wanted it. I mean I've been wanting her to do that or to do that for weeks, and I thought I had to wait to my birthday. It was a nice surprise—I mean she may not be my official girlfriend now, but she will be."

"Santana she's a Fabray. You might not want to hear this but I promise you, that they're bad news. I know you don't want to listen to me, but they do have a reputation. Charlie isn't who you think she is, and I promise you that she'll hurt you. I mean you keep talking about how she's going to be your girlfriend, but why isn't she right now? I mean if her intentions were pure she'd be dating you right now! But she's just waiting to your birthday so she can swipe your v-card and move on with her life."

"My v-card?" Santana repeats and Rachel nods earnestly.

"Your virginity. She's after your virginity. I took a look a closer look at the social media front and asking around, and I found out that her best friend is a notorious womanizer. The worst of the worst! Apparently, that's the type of school McKinley is!"

"So, her best friend is a womanizer, who cares? That doesn't mean that she's one. It just means she has a friend who is a womanizer. And if she was after my virginity there would be no point in waiting. We're close enough in age that it wouldn't matter," Santana nodded she had done her research on the fact. "And maybe I want to lose my virginity to her. You don't want me to date her because you have this weird thing for Quinn and you think Charlie and I care enough about your stupid show choir group to do something about it. Guess what we don't."

"That doesn't change the fact that she's a Fabray, and I promise that she's going to break your heart—"

"You and Quinn never dated. You kissed once in a closet. She was never your girlfriend, she wasn't even in the running to be your girlfriend. She just likes pissing you off because it amuses her. She must be a secret masochist because I don't see how you getting all worked up like this is amusing." Santana grumbles. "Charlie's actively pursuing me, and she didn't kiss me in a closet, she kissed me in public. I mean they might look the same—barely, but they aren't the same person. Why don't you go chase Quinn around trying to get her to like you?"

Rachel puffed out her cheeks, Santana didn't understand that she was just trying to protect her. "I didn't want to do this but if I must I go to your father with my concerns."

Santana narrowed her eyes, Charlie had just been complaining about her sister on the call that they were on together. She had to agree, sisters were annoying. "Then I'll tell your mother about your underage drinking, and how you seem to enjoy going into closets with strangers."

Rachel opened her mouth and the closed it, Shelby was pretty laid back about many things but that wasn't one of those things. "Fine, but don't come crying to me when she breaks your heart!"

"Don't worry I wasn't going to." Santana snaps and shakes her head. "Now if you can please get out. I have homework to do and I already have a raging headache from dealing with this nonsense."


	16. Chapter 16

"I told you," Rachel commented taking a seat beside Santana. It was petty, she knew it was petty but maybe now Santana would listen to her. "This is how it starts, I'm sure she'll have an excuse, a lame one. But don't buy into it. I'm telling you, I promise you that the Fabray's are bad news. I mean I did some digging—"

Santana scowled and grabbed her backpack and shuffled across the bench away from Rachel, hoping that she took the hint. "I don't want to hear about the gossip you got from that creepy guy from McKinley. He asked for your underwear. So, excuse me if I don't think the pervert's word is good."

"Santana—"

"I mean you do quite a bit of digging into the Fabray's, and you keep saying it's to protect me, but it's not. You just want to find out more about Quinn and why she rejected you. Which is fine, but I don't know why you keep dragging me into this. Charlie and Quinn are not the same person." Santana paused and stared at Rachel for a moment. "You do know that they aren't the same person, right?"

"Of course, I do, I don't believe that Quinn is pretending to be Charlie to fuck with me." Rachel insists.

Santana stared at Rachel who flushed. She was absolutely bat-shit crazy. It was the only explanation. "Rachel, Charlie's late. If she wasn't coming she would have texted me or something. Unless she's driving or something happened to her, we talk all the time. She's not Quinn, and maybe if you like Quinn so bad that you're stalking her then you should see someone about that. Or you know, talk to Quinn." Santana brightened when she noticed Charlie's car pull into the parking lot. "See, there she is. I'm going to go, you just—I don't know, think about what I said."

Charlie hopped out of the car, "I'm sorry, I'm late. There was an accident on the highway, backed it up and I don't text and drive. I mean I got into a fender bender, you get into a small fender bender with a little old lady and your parents make it out to be that you're the next Hitler or something." Charlie grumbled. "I would have texted you."

Santana grins at Charlie, it was sort of cute that she was apologetic. She wasn't even that late. It had just been twenty minutes. "It's fine. The movie doesn't start for another hour. We can go and grab something to eat if you're hungry—never mind you're always hungry."

Charlie flashed her a toothy grin and hopped over to the other side of the car so she could open the door for Santana. "I am, but don't worry, I'll save room for popcorn. We'll get the jumbo bucket. Well I'll get the jumbo bucket. I mean we can share."

Santana snorted, "I'm not sharing popcorn with you. I'll eat a handful and you'll eat the rest. I'll get my own popcorn. We can share the M&M's though."

"I'm allergic to chocolate," Charlie responds immediately. "So, you're on your own for your chocolate fix."

Santana's eyes widen, it was something that she hadn't known. "Who is allergic to chocolate?" She asks flushing when Charlie raises a brow. "You've never had chocolate before?"

"Well, I did, it didn't go well for me or Quinn honestly. We were young, it was a birthday party we were hospitalized, so now you understand I'm allergic to chocolate. It smells really nice, but I'm not supposed to eat it." Charlie informs Santana, it was the easiest explanation that she could give. There were things she couldn't eat in her wolf form or her human form, chocolate was one of those things.

Santana nods and makes a mental note of it, she didn't want to inadvertently kill her soon to be official girlfriend. "Do you have an EpiPen somewhere that I should know about?" She glances down at Charlie's tight fitting jeans, "I mean you really should carry them around."

Charlie shrugged, if that was the story that they were going to tell then she probably needed to get an EpiPen, "It's at home. I haven't eaten any chocolate in years, haven't had another reaction. You're right I probably should keep it on me at all times, but you see how tight these pants are. Where am I supposed to fit them? Especially since you like staring at me when I'm in tight pants."

Santana flushed, "Yeah, but I like you alive more. Who else am I going to talk to about crazy sisters? You know I think Rachel assumes that you and Quinn are the exact same person."

Charlie scowled but she could use this to lead into the conversation that she actually wanted to talk to Santana about, "Yeah, well Quinn wasn't exactly pleased that I kissed you. Probably because Rachel started to yell at her, or something."

"Why would Quinn care? Especially since Rachel's been stomping around for weeks because Quinn rejected her?" Santana wonders aloud. She expects Charlie to make some joke about their annoying siblings, but instead Charlie just scratches the back of her head with a guilty look. "What? Is something wrong?"

"No?" Charlie shrugs. "I mean, not wrong exactly. But Quinn did kind of have a point. I haven't exactly been honest with you." She pales when she realizes how that sounds, "I mean, I didn't mean to, you know? Like I didn't lie to you. I just think you should know—"

"You mean, you are only after me for the show-choir secrets?" Santana teased lightly, even as she gulped down the pit in her stomach.

Charlie laughs. "No. Definitely not. I just—I've never done this before. You know with a girl I liked, I've never had a girlfriend and I like you a lot. I trust you. Which is important, because what I want to tell you—you can't tell anyone."

Santana frowned, "You killed somebody?"

"No!" Charlie swallows frowning slightly. "I mean, it's big and if you don't want to date me then I mean I hope we can be friends." This was not going as she had planned and she could even feel her wolf cringing for her. This would be so much easier if Santana was a werewolf. Then she'd understand.

"Okay, well if you aren't a serial killer and you also aren't a show choir spy, whatever it is can't be that big of a deal." She laughs a little to herself. "I mean, it's not like you're a mutant or a werewolf or something."

Charlie stared at Santana and let out a nervous laugh, "Yeah, definitely not a werewolf."

Santana's eyes widen, "Is the part where you tell me you have mutant powers like the X-men?"

"No—I mean, no mutant powers but—I mean my body is different. And its part of the reason that we don't date." Charlie fumbles over the words. There was a look of confusion on Santana's face and she wasn't sure how to continue. This was the hardest thing that she had ever had to do. "I have a dick." Charlie states bluntly. "I'm a girl. But—I have a dick, I'm not in transition or anything, I was literally born that way. So, dating was never really a big thing for us because we weren't sure who would understand—" Charlie babbles.

"Oh." Santana startles, stunned. She wasn't even sure what she was supposed to say to that revelation, but Charlie looked horrified and scared, and it was different than the usual confident person that she saw. She was vulnerable and it made Santana feel sick to think that Charlie had any doubts about her reaction. "Well thanks for telling me." She automatically cringes at how stupid that sounds.

Charlie had prepared herself for several different reactions, but that was not it. "You're welcome?"

"I mean, I get that was probably scary and I know it was a big deal for you to be honest about that. But I like you. I like you more than I have liked anyone. So, it doesn't really matter to me what your stuff looks like."

"My stuff?" Charlie arches her brow, instantly feeling lighter about this whole thing.

"Shut up. You know what I mean. Did you really think I'd freak out?"

"No? I mean, maybe? It's not exactly what people would think about. I thought the whole liking girl's thing might make things more complicated." Charlie flushed, she wanted to kiss Santana again at this moment.

"I mean, we're not in that stage of the relationship yet—it would be weird if I asked to see it. Wouldn't it?"

"Yeah—you're right. I'm not ready either," Charlie half-lies. Sure, her wolf was ready, but it had been ready ever since she had started puberty. She wanted to enjoy her time with Santana, she wanted her mate to love her fully before she sprung the whole I'm a werewolf thing. "I just—I didn't want to surprise you or for you to think I was lying to you."

Santana nods and bites her lip, "So it's a genetic thing?"

"Uh, yeah. Quinn's the same. That's why you can't tell Rachel or anyone. We're a really private family. And Quinn would murder me in my sleep."

"Is that why she won't date Rachel?"

"Well, I think Quinn enjoys messing with Rachel. I guess that might be part of it, but Rachel—well she's very opinionated and I don't think Quinn trusts her not to use it against her for glee club. I mean there's a rumor around McKinley, that Rachel tricked a girl who might have been as good as her to go to a crack house." Charlie shrugged.

Santana groaned, "I remember that. Shelby was pissed."

"You mean it was true?" Santana nods and Charlie shakes her head. "Damn, that's cold. Also, a little bit frightening. Which means that we should set them up if only so I can laugh at Quinn." Charlie grinned at Santana. She could see it now, she'd be the only child by spring, if they dated.

Santana rolled her eyes, "So where are we going to eat."

"Golden Corral obviously." Charlie grins, an all you could eat buffet followed by popcorn and soda. It sounded like a perfect date to her.

Santana stared at Charlie and shook her head reaching over to prod Charlie's stomach, she was expecting flab or something but Charlie was toned probably from all that soccer. "You do know I can't eat like you right."

"It's fine. I'll eat enough for two," Charlie said happily.


	17. Chapter 17

Quinn flicked her eyes away from her sister for a moment, frowning slightly. "Whatever it is you want the answer is no."

Charlie scowled for a moment, but she wasn't going to let Quinn get to her. She was one step closer to having a girlfriend, to being with her mate. She didn't care that her wolf wasn't thrilled that they were going this slowly but it was the right decision. Santana needed to get used to her. "Who says I want something?"

"You only come into my room when you want something. So, the answer is no. Go away, don't you have a 'girlfriend' to lie too?" Quinn asked turning back to her book.

"I don't, Santana knows about my body." Charlie shrugged. "I mean I think she guessed that I was a werewolf but I didn't confirm anything."

Quinn dropped the book that she was reading, a horrified expression on her face as she turned to look at her twin who had a pleased look on her face. "Are you—have you _lost your damn mind_? Santana isn't _one of us_. She's _human_. She's going to tell someone!"

"She's not going to tell anyone. I trust her, and she understood. I mean she doesn't like Rachel and I don't think she'll talk to Shelby about it either, I mean she might look it up online if anything. Santana's cool Quinn, you just really need to give her a chance. She's my _mate_, you're going to need to get used to her."

"Are you—" Quinn inhales deeply. "Charlie, I know you're eager to stick your tiny dick inside someone, but Santana is _human_. Your wolf grew attached because it became domesticated in the short time that you spent with her. I _understand_ that you think you've found your mate, but have you really? I mean think about it. She's not one of us, which means you can't mate with her properly until she knows and she's old enough and smart enough to make that decision. She's fifteen."

"She turns sixteen next week, which is actually why I'm here—"

"No," Quinn repeats firmly. "I'm not going to privy to your idiotic plans Charlie. This is stupid, if you want a mate so badly well then you can wait till next month when dad introduces us to other families. We're going to meet other wolves Charlie. Other people like us, people who _understand_ our body and we don't have to hide anymore. We can have strong packs with them—don't throw that all away for a _human_. Especially one that's related even by law, to Rachel Berry."

"She's not just _any_ human Quinn. I don't think you understand. Like I don't know how to describe it. The wolf wants to be with her all the time, I don't mind when she steals food off my plate. Like I want to give her _half _of my food Quinn. I mean I thought that it was just a wolf thing, but it's not when we came face to face it just all clicked. I just _knew_. She's smart, she's funny, we have the same hatred of glee club. I—she didn't reject me for my body. I mean she might be a bit confused but she still wants to kiss me." A huge dopey grin crossed Charlie's feature. "I've only done it once before but _I _think she's a really good kisser. I mean—we should probably practice a lot more but—"

"Oh god, _shut _up. Listen to yourself." Quinn grumbled running a hand through her hair. "You've got a girlfriend, good for you. If you're done bragging—"

"I'm not here to brag, I just think that you should give humans a chance. Not Rachel, I mean I know she gets all hot and bothered around you but I _wouldn't_." Charlie nods. "She's _cold_, like ice cold. Apparently, it's true—you know the story about her getting a recruit to go to a crack den."

Quinn blinked, before narrowing her eyes. "I don't understand what that has to do with _anything_. I _don't_ like Rachel like that. Even if I did, I don't trust her. This wasn't just _your _secret to tell Charlie. It wasn't. It was _ours_. If you're _wrong_ about her, then you dragged me down with you."

"I'm not wrong."

"Sure, you're not," Quinn shakes her head. "I don't want to talk about it anymore, why are you here in my room?"

Charlie shifts nervously, this probably wasn't the best time to ask for a favor from her twin, but it was Santana's birthday soon. "I was wondering, since we're _identical twins_, if you could you know pretend to be me in wolf form for an evening?"

"No."

"Quinn."

"_No_."

"It's her _birthday_! I'd totally do the same for you!"

"No, you wouldn't. You'd laugh in my face and tell me to fuck off, so the answer is _no_."

"Maybe back then, but now that Santana's in my life—"

"Answer is _still_ no."

Charlie scowled, she had hoped that Quinn wouldn't make her resort to this, but Santana was _important_. "Mercedes is out with bronchitis, which means you're _down _one person in your silly little glee club. I'll fill in for _one day_. I'll sing and dance and look like a fucking moron while doing it, but if you do this for me, I'll do it."

Quinn paused, it was a good deal and more importantly it would _break _Rachel's mind. Rachel was already paranoid, and if she put enough pressure then maybe Charlie and Santana would eventually break up. Romeo and Juliet ended _tragically_ after all. "Plus, you have to do all my math homework, and as long as we're clear that I do _not _play fetch. I will sit there, and let her pet me but that's about it. I'm not a domesticated animal."

"But Santana gives like the best rubs and—" Charlie flushed before growling at the thought. The thought of Santana rubbing Quinn's belly pissed her off more than she could fathom. "Actually, you're right. Just don't bite her, and I know this goes against everything you stand for but _be friendly_."

"I'm _friendly_."

"No, you're a bitch. There's a difference. Your wolf isn't any better, I mean I growled at everyone _but _Santana so it's fine. But Santana _loves_ me as a dog so don't _you _know growl at her or _bite _her. Just you know pretend to be me."

"So, act like an idiot? Got it."

"I do not—"

"You chased your own _tail _for her. We haven't done that since we were pups," Quinn retorted. She wasn't going to let Charlie change history.

"Fine, act like an idiot, just be a nice idiot," Charlie nods. "And you know—try and stay away from Rachel. She'll try and feed you vegetables. Also, I don't think she can tell us apart so you know, if you want to fuck with her later we can."

"Really, she can't—" Quinn smirked, she'd tuck that little nugget away for now. Oh, the fun she could have.


	18. Chapter 18

Santana grinned as she opened the door, and grinned when she saw the two Charlie's standing at her doorway. The human was carrying a poorly wrapped present, and a cake. The canine version of Charlie, currently looked absolutely miserable in his party hat. "Charlie and Fuzzbutt!" Santana grinned immediately going to pet Fuzzbutt. She pauses when he doesn't immediately jump her like usual and glances at Charlie.

"He's in a bit of a mood, and I don't think he likes the hat," Charlie nods. "Should perk up after you give him a treat." Charlie grinned at Quinn who shot her an annoyed look. But it seemed to be enough as Quinn jumped onto her hind legs and immediately licked Santana's face before dropping back down and sniffing the air. "Smells delicious," Charlie offers, her stomach growling.

"Don't worry my dad is making a ton of food, I told him how much you eat and he _remembers_ how much Fuzzbutt eats," Santana glances at the present. "Did you wrap it?"

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot to get one of those gift bags, and all we had was this at home. You might as well laugh, Quinn laughed for ages. There was name-calling involved," Charlie flashes Santana a sheepish grin, she wasn't very good with scissors—or tape. In fact, Santana was lucky she had done this much.

Santana grins, she was looking forward to seeing what Charlie got for her. Her birthday so far hadn't been that great when it came to presents. Though her dad had _promised_ to take her out to the DMV later today to get her learner's permit, and take her for her first driving lesson. "I'll tease you after the fact, what did you get me and can I shake it?"

"Well, you _could_ but I wouldn't, I mean it is pretty heavy."

"It doesn't look heavy," Santana points out. It did look big but Charlie didn't seem to be struggling with the weight. She reaches for it and takes the package from Charlie and blinks, it was heavy. "What did you get me a brick?"

"Open it," Charlie offers. "Unless we have to wait till there's—" Charlie blinked as Santana tore into the gift gleefully. She glances at Quinn who stretched and yawned.

"Sandman! You got me the Omnibus?" Santana glances up at Charlie who was scratching her cheek.

"Is that good? I mean, I asked the guy if he had the complete collection because I saw you looking at the book when we went shopping for comics last time. I mean if you got the book then I can take it back—hopefully and you can pick something else out. I saw this pretty cool Iron Man mask thing. I mean—"

Santana leaned forward tilting her head up and kissing Charlie on the lips, the babbling was _cute_, but now that she was _officially_ sixteen she could do that. She blinks when something fuzzy squeezes in between her and Charlie and growls at Charlie. "I don't think Fuzzbutt approves," she laughs.

Charlie blinked, the broad goofy grin on her face disappearing as she narrowed her eyes at Quinn. "I will turn you into a fur coat," she snaps at her twin.

"_Charlie_," Santana rolls her eyes and reaches down to pet Fuzzbutt, scratching behind his ears. She grins when Fuzzbutt licks her face before trotting past her, his eyes were different, it was the one thing she noticed about him, but she didn't give it much thought for now. She wanted to introduce Charlie—her _girlfriend_ to her father. "I love it. Thank you, I know what I'm going to be reading instead of doing my English homework."

Charlie grinned, "I'm glad you like it, I wasn't sure—there are just so many comics but I mean the guy at the store _swore _to me that this was a _must_ for every comic book reader—I mean I liked the iron man helmet _better_ but I figure it was _your _birthday and it would be bad form for me to buy a present that's really a present for me—I should stop talking though."

Santana laughed, she didn't understand why Charlie was so nervous. "My dad doesn't bite."

"He doesn't? My dad does." Charlie flicked her eyes to Quinn who barked at her. "What you know he does," Charlie grumbles. "Do you think he'll like me?"

Santana smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I think so."

Charlie exhaled, she wasn't nervous of meeting Santana's father because she needed to make a good impression, she needed to keep her wolf in check. She didn't do well with authority figures, and what was worse she didn't want to challenge him as the alpha. She wanted him to _like _her just because. "Okay, I'm ready."

Santana rolled her eyes, "I don't know why you're worried about my dad, it's Rachel and Shelby you need to be worried about."

"Mother's love me," Charlie nods. She flicks her eyes to Quinn who snorts and then barks rubbing up against Santana. She was going to kill her sister. It really was that simple. "Also, your sister is crazy, so—I mean, can't win them all."

"Step-sister," Santana corrects absentmindedly, "And Shelby's my step-mother."

"I don't think—"

"_You_."

Charlie blinked and looked at Rachel who was standing on the staircase and pointing at her dramatically. It was _almost_ too much. _Almost. _"Should you be worried about that?" Charlie mumbles to Santana nodding towards Rachel. "Paranoia isn't good."

"I knew that you were a spy!" Rachel continues as if Charlie hadn't spoken. "Now I have _evidence_!"

Santana groaned, of course now was the exact moment that her father would choose to check in on her. She already knew the rules, Charlie wasn't allowed up in her room, and all doors had to be open if they were alone. Her father was taking this rather well, maybe it was Shelby's influence, personally she didn't care. "Rachel, it's my _birthday_. Charlie isn't a spy."

"That's what she wants you to think. But I have evidence that _proves_ that Charlie is working with New Directions."

Charlie glances at Quinn who seemed to be pleased with herself, as she curled up on the ground watching Rachel. Of course, she was, Quinn was the _worst_. "I'm not a spy. Quinn called in a favor since Mercedes was sick. Well it's more like blackmail, or extortion. Whichever."

Rachel scoffed, "I'm sure, what could Quinn possibly have on you that would make a self-confessed hater of the arts join a glee club!"

Charlie shifted and glanced at Quinn who was looking at her, she couldn't read Quinn's mind when she was like this, but she needed to think of something. "I've been skipping Math class, when it's last period to drive up to Akron to see Santana. She knows and she threatened to rat me out to the parental units. Though, she did say that it would probably drive you crazy so I mean of course I had to do it."

Santana blinked and looked at Charlie, "So that's why you were annoyed the other day."

"Yeah. I mean it was humiliating, all the stuff. Quinn's a sadist," Charlie yanks her arm up before Quinn can use the limb as a chew toy. Charlie immediately shifts her attention to Carlos and extends her hand, "It's a pleasure to meet you sir. My name is Charlie Fabray."

"She's my girlfriend," Santana adds leaning against Charlie's arm. The books were _heavy_, but she needed to keep an eye on her father and Charlie.

Charlie grins at Santana before clearing her throat, "Yeah, girlfriend."

Carlos narrowed his eyes for a moment only to get elbowed by Shelby, "It's nice to meet you," he finally replied gruffly before looking at his daughter. She seemed _happy_, it certainly explained why she had been so excited all day. But from what he had heard from Rachel, Charlie and her family were spawns of Satan. "Any tattoos?"

Charlie blinked, "Uh—no?"

"_Papi_!" Santana hissed at her father.

"Piercings?"

Charlie shakes her head, she didn't like needles. "No, sir."

"Grade point average?"

"3.8, sir for this year. It's not my best and this isn't an excuse but I was out sick with pneumonia. I've been trying to catch up, which probably means I should attend math class, but I get a solid A+ in that class." Charlie explains keeping her gaze on his. "I play soccer for my extracurricular activities, and in the off season I swim and rock climb and go hiking. I was a scout—" Quinn barks at this and Charlie flicks her eyes to her twin and scowls at her. She had been a scout for all of five minutes.

Santana blinked, "You rock climb?"

"Yeah." Charlie grins at Santana, maybe it was something that they could do together. "Would you like to—"

"No." Santana informs her bluntly.

"We'd probably be able to find rare Pokémon," Charlie offers trying to tempt Santana.

"No. I don't like heights."

"I wear like really short pants—" Quinn bit her pant leg and barked at her, causing Charlie to flush and look up at Santana's father who didn't look amused. "I mean, we can always go watch the next set of Marvel movies instead."

Santana shook her head, and looked at her father. She _hoped_ that he liked her, she didn't want this to become some sort of thing. Charlie was her _first_ girlfriend.

"I _still_ think this is a terrible idea, she's a—"

"_Rachel_." Shelby warned.

Rachel sulked for a moment, "Spy. She's totally a spy."

"Are you a spy?" Carlos offered after a moment.

"No. I don't even really like show choir, my parents make me go. To you know—support Quinn. I honestly think that they make me go so they don't have to."

Carlos blinked, "That's an option?"

"_Carlos_."

Carlos cleared his throat, he could see why his daughter liked her. "So, Santana says that you're a bottomless pit."

"Papi—"

"Accurate," Charlie nods. "I think I was born with a hole in my stomach. Runs in the family, you should see how much we spend on food a week."

"I fed your wolf-dog," Carlos grumbles.

"Right, thank you for taking such good care of him. For saving him, I don't know what I would have done without him."

Carlos nods, "Do you want me to check the wound?"

Charlie freezes for a moment, Quinn didn't have a scar. She still couldn't remember that _night_, it was a blur of smells and pain, all she knew was that the trauma seemed to be imprinted on her soul because she had the scar in her human form. It was on her hip. "If you can get him to sit down for a moment, that sounds great. But I think that he'd prefer food, wouldn't you boy!"

Rachel narrowed her eyes, that was _weird_. But no one else seemed to notice that weird pause or the nervous deflection. Something was _definitely _up. She watches as Carlos leads Charlie towards the grill and for a moment she watches Charlie go for a moment. The soccer player stopping and turning to look at her, and for a moment Rachel could _swear_ there was a flash of yellow in her eyes. Perhaps a trick of the light. She sighs and is about to follow Santana when she notices that the damn dog is staring at her with piercing eyes. "Shoo," she flinches when the dog growls before turning around and following Charlie inside the kitchen. Something was _definitely _up.


	19. Chapter 19

Russell frowned slightly as he watched his youngest child attempting to clean, she had never been any good at it and it had never been fully on display like this before. She was merely shoving things that should have been put into it's proper place into a closet. "What are you doing?"

"My _girlfriend_ is coming over, I'm cleaning."

"This isn't cleaning—" Russell paused for a moment. "Your what?"

Charlie stopped and stared at her father for a moment like he had just grown another head. "Girlfriend. Santana's coming over we're going to watch movies and I'm going to hold her and try and make her laugh and maybe you know kiss her again—"

"Stop." Russell frowned holding his hand up. "Santana? What clan does she come from? I thought your mother was on top of this—"

"She's _human_—you know the person who found me when I was in my wolf form and nursed me back to health. I told you my wolf has decided she's to be my mate. Keep up old man," Charlie adds rudely tossing a blanket on top of all the garbage she had shoved into the closet.

"What?"

"You turned Quinn into her wolf form the other day to help me out, it was her birthday. I spent my allowance and my cleat money to buy her a present. I made you drive. How the hell do you not remember any of this—getting senile in your old age—_ow_ what the fuck was that for?" Charlie bitched rubbing the top of her head where Russell had just smacked _hard_.

Russell narrowed his eyes, he didn't pay attention to his children. They were alphas and it was a headache to deal with all the constant in-fighting. Everything was a fight these days, he remembered the time that they were cute and the worst he had to deal with was them nipping at his heels, but they were on the verge of becoming adults. Things would change, Charlie's attitude wasn't _new_. "I thought we made it clear ages ago that you weren't to _pursue_ this."

"I'm pretty sure grandpa said the same thing to you when you came after mom, and look at how that went," Charlie fires back.

"Your mother came from a powerful clan—" Russell closed his eyes. Judy had made him promise not to beat his kids, it was some new age bullshit as far as he was concerned. Charlie was trying his patience. "The difference is Charlotte, is your mother was one of us. She was a wolf. Whether or not I fought your maternal grandfather for the right to mate with your mother is _not_ the same as what you're doing."

"My _wolf_ chose her. You taught me and Quinn—"

"We _mate_ for life. The only time that we are _free_ of that is when one of us dies. Mating with a human is dangerous and _stupid_ because the bond doesn't work like that with them. She breaks up with you and then what? You slowly lose your mind and become nothing more than a beast? Or perhaps you have it in your head to turn her, knowing that there is a seventy-percent chance that she isn't able to handle the turn. And if she does it's fifty-fifty that she doesn't go stark raving mad. So, don't you dare throw my words back at me, I didn't teach you to be _selfish_."

"You barely taught me anything at all, she already _knows_ about my body. She's okay with it—"

"I don't care. End it. Your wolf will eventually move on and get over it. You _haven't _mated, she saved you. She fed you, she bathed you, by your own admission she treated you like a _pet_. I'm not denying that there is a bond there, and perhaps you enjoy spending time with this girl but she is _not _your mate. If you're so eager, I can introduce you to other clans, it's about time that you started meeting them anyway. Would have happened sooner if your mother wasn't trying to baby the two of you."

Charlie scowled at her father. "I'm _not _going to." She grimaced when Russell's hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck. Even though she was sure he was losing it in his old age, he still had that damn monstrous strength of his and it had been awhile since she had been on the receiving end of his wrath.

Russell's eyes glowed yellow as he squeezed down on her throat, choking her. It wasn't enough to make her lose consciousness but it was more than enough to leave a mark and with that get his point across. He was _still _the alpha in this household and Charlie would be wise to keep her head down and do as he said. "You are. For as long as you're a member of _my _pack and for as long as you live under my roof you will do what I say."

Charlie scratched at his wrist trying to break free, but she wasn't strong enough to kick his ass yet. One day, but not today. "Get off me!" She coughs when he squeezes tighter for a moment but he does eventually drop her hard on the ground, using force to send her skidding across the floor. She tries to get up to retaliate only to feel his foot on her back pinning her to the ground.

"Do you understand?" Russell asks coolly.

Charlie tries to scramble away but she's pinned, and she scowls. The last thing she needs is for Quinn to see her like this or her mother or Santana. Pathetic and weak. She wouldn't be able to stand it if Santana saw her like this. "_Fine_. _Yes_, I understand," Charlie spits, her cheeks flaming with humiliation.

Russell kept his foot on her back for an extra moment before deciding to let her go. "Good, also I expect for this place to _actually _be clean, when I get back. Not whatever _this _is." He points to the closet and then shakes his head, before deciding to find his wife to help soothe his annoyance. He was sure she had been listening.

Charlie scrambled to her feet and flipped him off behind his back before leaning against the wall and curling up, trying to keep the frustrated tears from falling. Screw him. He couldn't just tell her what to do _now_ when he had barely cared to do it before. She knew plenty of wolves who had human mates—well _no_, just one her Aunt Holly.

~O~

Santana glanced at Charlie, there was an entire bowl of popcorn on the coffee table that hadn't been touched. She seemed intent on watching the movie instead of doing that thing that she did where she tried not to get caught staring. She was also in a hoodie despite the fact that Charlie's home was warm.

Charlie blinked and glanced at Santana, forcing a smile onto her lips. "Yeah, sorry I'm just trying to figure it out," she nods towards the flat screen. "I guess I don't understand this whole regeneration thing. I liked the Master."

Santana blinks, "I don't know why it's a big deal. Sure, I get that the show is super old and back then it just made sense. But I don't understand why this is a big deal. Why would a bunch of aliens have the same hang-ups about gender that we _humans_ have?" She huffed.

Charlie was quiet for a moment before smiling, "You're right I guess. He's _not _human, I keep forgetting that," Charlie turns her attention back to the television trying to figure out what's going on. "I just guess that getting used to the regenerations is something I'm simply going to have to get used to."

Santana nods, Charlie wasn't deep into the subculture of Doctor Who like she was so it made sense that she was having problems adjusting. She hadn't liked the _new_ older doctor, preferring the youthful Eleven and Ten. "So, do you want to tell me what's really going on? I mean I know you Charlie, you would be on your third bowl of popcorn by now."

"Not really hungry," Charlie admits with a wave of her hand.

"Now I _know_ something's wrong. You're always hungry." Santana shifted, "Have I done something—?"

"No!" Charlie frowned, and sighed. "You didn't do anything wrong, just my dad's an asshole. Is all. He doesn't—you know approve. But I don't really care what he thinks. I like you, I want to be with you. The end. I'm sorry, I'm just in a mood is all." Charlie frowned slightly. She felt odd telling someone—anyone about how she felt, but it was Santana and all she really wanted to do was curl into her side and just close her eyes for a bit. He was _wrong_, she wouldn't feel this way if it was just a normal bond. She wouldn't feel this comfortable with Santana if it was just because she was her pet. "I'm sorry for—"

"Your dad doesn't approve?" As far as she was concerned anyone who had trophies of animals that they killed, for sport, hanging in their study had to be an ass. She glances wearily at the hoodie that Charlie was wearing, wondering if she should ask the obvious.

"I repeat my dad's an asshole. In this house, what he says goes, even if he's wrong. I've got no intention of breaking up with you though. Even if that's what he wants. It's not like he'll notice," A crooked defiant smile causes her face to light up in amusement.

"Does he—you know _hurt _you?" Santana bit her lip and reached forward tugging at the hoodie.

Charlie smiled at Santana, "No. But I did bang myself up playing soccer. Coach Washington had us practicing dives. It was irritating as hell, just a few scrapes and bruises. One minor soccer injury, nothing to be worried about." Charlie lies with ease. Santana wouldn't understand that it was just the way things worked. She keeps her face neutral as she swallows deeply, she didn't want to be thinking like _him_, but she _wouldn't _understand. It wasn't as simple as Santana would make it out to be, it wasn't as black and white. So instead she simply reaches for Santana's hand and holds it. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to burden you—"

"Please you're my girlfriend and you've listened to me bitch about Rachel and Shelby for weeks now. I get it you're not always going to be happy. But thank you for telling me. You know about your dad. If you ever need a place—I mean my dad might make you sleep on the couch but I mean you could stay with me."

Charlie leans in and kisses Santana, it's sudden and she pulls back a bit flushing for a moment. "Thank you—"

Santana grins and she immediately leans forward and kisses Charlie, she couldn't get away with this at her place, but kissing Charlie was _really _fun and she was really good at it.


	20. Chapter 20

"Can I just say that this is by far one of your _shittiest_ ideas ever?" Quinn points out bluntly as she follows her sister down the halls of the winding dance studio.

"Shut up Quinn," Charlie snaps back, stopping for one moment to sniff the air and turning the corner.

Quinn ignored her twin and shook her head. "There are two things wrong with this idea of yours. One; dad _hates_ Aunt Cass, so you're only going to piss him off further. Two; Aunt Cass is _insane_. I'm only here to make sure that she doesn't tear your throat out because she can."

Charlie rolled her eyes, yes Quinn had a point, but she was missing the bigger picture. Their aunt Cassandra was quite possibly insane, but she was their _aunt_. "The feelings mutual Quinn. You think that Aunt Cass _likes _dad? That's why I'm here. She's not a stickler for rules and _tradition _plus, she'll help because it will get under dad's skin."

"Yeah, and then Dad is going to _murder_ you."

Charlie shrugged, "No he isn't because Aunt Cass is also going to teach me how to fight him and then win. Then he won't be able to tell me what to do anymore and I'll be able to date Santana without him being a douche about it."

Quinn sighed, Charlie really _was _looking for trouble. She also wasn't thinking straight and it was problematic on so many levels. Sure their father was a jerk but he wasn't wrong about anything he had said. "So whose bright idea was this exactly? Yours or—"

"Mine. Though it didn't exactly take much convincing. I can't beat him, we are weak. How will we protect our mate if we are weak, and since dad doesn't give a shit about making sure that we are strong, then I'm going to the next best thing?"

"The next best thing would be our grandfather," Quinn pointed out. It would irritate their father just as much but their grandfather did spoil them rotten and he wasn't as unbalanced as Cassandra was.

"Yes, but he's even more of a stickler for the rules and traditions then dad is," Charlie pointed out. "I mean I suppose I could lie, but I don't like lying to gramps. Plus you know how heavy his hands are. It _hurts_ when he smacks you upside the head."

"I imagine getting your throat ripped out hurts more," Quinn muttered under her breath tilting her head and inhaling deeply. An eyebrow shoots up for a moment when she recognizes a familiar scent. "Did you at least call her and give her a heads up? You know how she gets."

"Of course I didn't, I didn't want her to change her mind. Or conveniently forget that she promised, I know exactly how she is." Charlie grumbles. She turns to Quinn who seemed to be distracted by something. "What are you doing?"

"Do you smell that?"

"No, I'm trying to find Aunt Cassandra, but this place smells like way too much deodorant and sweat, it's revolting," Charlie frowns slightly. It was difficult but she had found her aunt's scent following it was difficult since it seemed that her aunt used this place as her own personal sex playground.

"Rachel's here."

"Rachel? Why the fuck is Rachel here?" Charlie pauses and turns to Quinn. "Fuck her already and move on. This stalking thing that she's doing is getting old, quickly."

Quinn smirks, "Why would I do that? It's hilarious, she makes a terrible spy, an even worse hunter. Tell me you don't think it's funny."

"It was but _come on_ Quinn. It was funny the first few times but she's _stalking_ you. Honestly I think you _like her_, you just don't know how to deal with it other than pulling her pigtails, like some child who doesn't know how to deal with their feelings. If you want to date her, then date her. If you want to fuck her to get it out of your system, do that. Except she'll probably keep following you around, so you should probably think about it before you do it."

Quinn hummed and smiled at Charlie completely ignoring what her sister had said, "Want to fuck with her?"

"No. I'm here on a mission." Charlie rolled her eyes, she didn't have time to deal with Quinn's love life. She just wanted to see her aunt. "Finally," she mutters reaching a door, it certainly smelt like her aunt was in the room. She reaches for the door handle only to have Quinn grab her wrist. "_What_?"

"_Knock_. Do you remember last time we surprised her?"

Charlie pulled her wrist from Quinn and smirked, they had been ten and their mother had taken them to visit, to maybe sign them up for dance classes. Walking in on their Aunt Cassandra having sex hadn't been as mentally scarring as some people would think. They were sexual creatures and personally she hadn't cared that her aunt was busy riding on some dudes dick, it had been their mother's reaction which had been funny. Charlie opened the door anyway pushing it open and grinning, "Hey Aunt Cassie!"

"You! I knew you were stalking _me_!"

Quinn blinked and raised a brow as she tilted her head to look at Rachel and her mother sitting in chairs across from her aunt Cassandra who looked ready to rip Charlie's throat out. She knew the feeling well. "I'm not allowed to come see my favorite aunt now?" She challenges immediately.

"What are you two numbnuts doing here? And have you ever heard of knocking?" Cassandra shakes her head, of course they hadn't. Judy had birthed the two most irritating children on the planet. "Also I told you to quit calling me Aunt Cassie. I'm in a meeting go wait outside. Don't touch anything."

"You're their aunt?" Shelby presses immediately, wondering that had escaped her knowledge.

"Unfortunately. My sister married their jackass father. They took on some of his more annoying traits," Cassandra replied before narrowing her eyes and turning to look at Rachel and Quinn who were eying each other. Quinn had an evil grin on her face which was never good. "I'm assuming you know these two."

Charlie nods and smiles at Shelby, "I'm dating her step-daughter," Charlie announces, watching as confusion swept over Cassandra's face as she studied the two humans in front of her. "Also Quinn and Rachel have some weird show-choir rivalry going on."

"Aunt Cass, you can't. They're our mortal enemy. You can't help choreograph their performance," Quinn said turning to her aunt Cassandra, an attempt of an innocent look on her face. "You should come and choreograph our performance instead."

"Do you have money? Well I know you have money your dad's loaded, but are you going to pay me?" Cassandra retorts.

"McKinley doesn't have the budget to afford your services, but Caramel high does," Shelby insists immediately.

Cassandra nodded and glanced at Quinn crossing her arms over her chest, "She's right, blame your father for sending you to that shitty school. What's your counter offer?"

"All the money in Charlie's pocket plus you get to piss off my dad," Quinn responds.

"What? _Hey_!" Charlie insists. "That's my _cleat _money!"

"You have ten pairs of cleats you don't need another pair. Give her the money Charlie," Quinn insists, turning to Rachel and smiling smugly.

Rachel turns on Charlie immediately, "I knew you were a spy."

"Please, you're the one stalking Quinn. I came to see my _favorite—_"

"Stop being a kiss-ass," Cassandra interrupts bluntly.

Charlie smiles at her aunt and rubs the back of her neck, she had probably been laying it on a bit thick. "Right. I came to see my aunt Cassandra about some family stuff. Santana and I don't talk about your glee club, we talk about comics and movies and soccer and then we kiss—there's a lot of kissing, and hand holding and eating food. Trust me your glee club furthest thing on my mind."

"How much do you have in your pockets?" Cassandra asks.

"Three hundred dollars," Charlie mutters under her breath and grumbles when Cassandra extends her hand.

"That'll buy you an hour of my time. I'm only doing this so I don't get a call from your mother who will try and guilt me for not helping you. Something about blood or whatever."

Quinn raised her hands in victory and smirked at Rachel who looked like she was close to an aneurysm. "Guess we win again. Pay her Charlie."

"Mom said that I could get the customized cleats that I wanted!" Charlie insists. "They will _match _my uniform!"

"Does it matter? You're already the best player on the team, you don't need colorful cleats. Pay her Charlie."

"I don't see why you didn't just ask mom, I don't know why I have to pay for your stupid glee club," Charlie grumbled. "You owe me," she mutters under her breath as she pulls out her wallet and hands her aunt the money that her mother given her.

Shelby frowned slightly, Cassandra was the best choreographer in the area she wasn't about to just let her walk away. "We'll double your pay."

Cassandra hesitated for a moment and glanced at her nieces, immediately rolling her eyes when Quinn pouts at her. "You _used _to be cute. Unfortunately I can't abandon them, I tried that once, my sister bitched at me for hours. To be fair they were still babies and there was a hot guy around and well I didn't want him thinking that they were _my _children. Nothing chases away men more than babies." With that said Cassandra snatches the money away from Charlie who pouts at her.

"You abandoned your nieces?" Shelby gasped.

"You say it as if it's a bad thing, look at them they're fine. Mostly." Cassandra shrugs. "Honestly I can barely tell them apart."

Rachel glanced at Quinn, "She's your favorite aunt?"

"She's _honest_," Quinn says defensively.

"Bat-shit crazy is more like it," Charlie mutters under her breath and swallows when Cassandra glares at her. "Which makes her the best."

"This suddenly explains so much. Come on mom I guess we're going to go with Dakota Stanley."

Cassandra snorted and then coughed, "Sure you do that," she smiles. "Now please go away, these two don't show up unless they want something and I somehow doubt that they came here to screw you guys over."

Charlie smiles at Shelby politely, "Say hi to Santana for me!"

"Later Rachel. See you at nationals," Quinn waved happily.

Shelby sighs and grips Rachel's shoulder as she walks them out of the office, they had been close. She would need to talk to Santana about what she told Charlie, she was beginning to think that Rachel may have a point and that Charlie was spying.

Cassandra waits for a moment, watching as Quinn closes the door and stares at her nieces for a moment, before narrowing her eyes at Charlie. "You're dating a human."

Charlie shifts a bit, as sure as she had been her aunt was wildly unpredictable. "She's my _mate_ aunt Cass, mom probably told you that I got shot—"

"Hunters?"

For a moment there Charlie was certain she heard concern in Cassandra's voice, but she dismissed it. "We're not sure. But it wasn't silver. I'm still here," Charlie admits. "Santana found me and took me in and nursed me back to health and my wolf bonded with her to the point that it decided to make her my mate. She's my _mate_. I just—" Charlie shifted again. "I really like her."

"I'm sure your father told you it was stupid."

"He did, I did. Mom did, everyone and their mother has informed Charlie at how dangerous this is for Santana, but she's certain that they're mates," Quinn speaks up taking a seat in the now empty chair.

"If you're looking for my blessing—"

"I'm not. I want to learn how to transform at will, and you know—I want to kick dad's ass."

Cassandra studied her niece for a moment, Russell had been adamant that they wait to teach them the skill. She had thought it was a stupid decision. Especially since Judy had been in a panic about Charlie's disappearance. Charlie hadn't been able to turn herself back, which had led to this situation. "I think this is a shitty idea."

"Thank you," Quinn says immediately. "Come on Charlie let's—"

"So I'm going to teach you how to do it. Far as I'm concerned your father should have taught it to you long ago. He's made you weaker on purpose. Also you're never going to beat your father's strength, that's why you need to be more agile and faster than he is."

Quinn blinked and stared at her aunt for a second, wishing that her aunt was more responsible. But if she was going to teach Charlie how to transform at will then she was going to make sure that she got in on it too. There was no way that she was letting Charlie leave her behind.


	21. Chapter 21

Charlie gasped as she rolled onto her back, sweat pouring down her face as she looked at the harsh fluorescent lights, even Quinn seemed to be out of breath and tired. Personally, she was glad it wasn't just her who found this to be difficult. "You're right Quinn—stupid idea." Charlie panted.

"No, _shit_." Quinn groaned, she couldn't feel her legs. She was sure that wasn't supposed to happen.

"How are you two in such terrible shape? This is the _easy_ part!" Cassandra called out from where she was sitting. This was _embarrassing_, Russell was keeping them weak and helpless. Her father had made her do double this when she was fourteen. It had sucked then but it had made her a strong alpha. From the looks of it they weren't even all that strong physically. It's no wonder Russell had an easy time pushing them around. "I thought you were _athletes_!"

"Cheerleading isn't a sport," Charlie points out trying to sit up but failing miserably.

"Like hell it isn't," Quinn growled at her sister. "Who watches soccer anyway?"

"Millions of people. FIFA is constantly one of the most watched sporting events next to the Olympics. Cheerleading is not, it's not even a sport," Charlie argues.

"If you two can argue then you can run, so get your ass up and start running." Cassandra barked out.

Quinn watched as Charlie slowly stood to her feet, her legs wobbling dangerously and stuck out her hand. "This is your fault."

Charlie grips Quinn's hand and hauls her up, "I don't even know why we're doing this," she muttered.

"Because you want to piss off dad and you want to mate with Santana, even though it's a terrible idea." Quinn reminds her as they look at their aunt Cassandra. "She's a sadist, you know that right."

"I do." Charlie nods. "Let's just get this—" Charlie's head whips towards her bag where a loud wheezing noise is heard and she immediately runs for it a huge grin on her face. Santana was calling which was going to make all this sick sadistic training _worth _it.

Cassandra eyed the bag and grabbed it before Charlie could reach plucking her nieces phone from the pocket and answers it. "Hello?"

Charlie's eyes nearly bug out of her head when her aunt smirks at her and she can feel her heart hammering in her chest as she lunges for her aunt, who merely spins out of the way causing her to crash into the table hard.

'_Uh, hi_? _I'm looking for Charlie?_' Santana blinks looking at her phone wondering if she had dialed the wrong number, but Charlie was currently in her contacts as her number one favorite. The sound of crashing is heard and the woman laughs.

Cassandra shoots Charlie a smirk, "This is Charlie's phone, who is this? Who are you? And why are you calling her phone?" She demands as she twists out of the way, causing Charlie to trip over a chair and fall face first onto the ground. Agile, her niece was _not_.

Quinn sighs and immediately decides to sit back down and watch her twin crash into people, and things. It certainly beat doing the crazy exercises her aunt was forcing them to do.

'_Uh, this is Santana. Her girlfriend, who the hell is this_?' Santana snaps back immediately getting annoyed, she could hear someone crashing into the background.

Cassandra shoots one last look at Charlie before shrugging, if her niece couldn't even keep up then she certainly deserved the headache that this would cause. It would certainly solve this little crush that Charlie had on a _human_. They simply didn't understand, what it meant to be a mate and they never would. Charlie was infatuated nothing more. "Her girlfriend and I don't know who the _hell _you think you are."

The growl rips from Charlie's throat as she turns to look at her aunt, her eyes were blurry and her fingers itched something _awful_. But she wasn't going to let her aunt ruin things with her mate. How _dare _she even think about playing such a cruel trick on Santana.

"Uh—Charlie?" Quinn called as Charlie moved, she could hear the bones cracking from here as her twin suddenly transformed into a wolf who was heading straight for her aunt. Immediately she scrambles forward hoping to stop Charlie before she murdered their aunt.

Cassandra eyes the massive growling ball of fuzz that was running directly at her. "Just kidding, I'm her aunt and Charlie's indisposed at the moment. Call back later." Cassandra ended the call and tossed the phone to Quinn before ducking under Charlie who had lunged at her neck. She turns on her heel before pushing off and gaining some distance from the wolf in front of her. Charlie was incensed. Which meant that this wasn't a simple infatuation. This was an _actual_ problem that no one was taking seriously.

Quinn winced as her aunt transformed and moved quickly going for Charlie, who did the same. There was a crash of fur and teeth and claws as the two of them began to fight for dominance. Charlie wasn't backing down, despite the fact that her aunt seemed to be a step quicker. Everyone had their own style in a fight, some like her aunt depended on their speed and agility to get in and out, wearing out their opponent. Her father preferred his brute strength and stamina. Charlie seemed to have a bit of both, she was fast and she seemed to have the staying power of her father. She was already bleeding from a large gash on her snout. But Charlie wasn't out for the count and she had taken a chunk out of her aunt Cassandra's side. If this continued she was actually unsure who would win. She did know that she needed to figure out an out before someone got seriously injured—

A wheezing sound starts to come from Charlie's phone causing her to turn to it, completely ignoring the pain in her face or the gash on her flank as she moves towards the phone her tail wagging and her tongue sticking out. The fur began to recede as she approached the phone and Quinn tilted her head at her as she reached for her phone, with human fingers. "Santana? Sorry my aunt was being a dick," Charlie says apologetically. "I may have crashed into a table trying to get the phone from her."

'_Yeah, I figured it was a prank_. _Are you okay_?" Santana shifts slightly. She wasn't going to tell Charlie that for one brief moment she had doubted her. Charlie wasn't _like that_, she knew that but still. Her aunt sort of sounded sexy on the phone and all sorts of images had propped up in her head.

"Uh—I think I may need some stitches," Charlie mumbled touching the gash on her face. It would heal quickly but it was rather deep and jagged. It was going to be hard to explain this one.

'_Fuck—go to a hospital!_' Santana insists.

"I will. Just wanted to make sure that you _knew_ that I'm not cheating, I'd never cheat on you," Charlie insists forcefully. The idea made her sick to her stomach and she was desperate to know that Santana didn't think she was like that.

'_I get that, I do. Your aunt is evil, just go and get checked out please_?"

Charlie nods, "I will, I'll call you later." Charlie ended the call and touched the blood on her face and looked at her torn clothes on the ground. "Uh—"

Cassandra frowned as she shifted back, "Your mother is going to _bitch_ at me for weeks," she groaned looking at Charlie's face. "Congrats, you popped your cherry let's get you to a doctor so you can get that face stitched up." She was going to have a long conversation with her sister about Charlie's little problem. This wasn't going to just _go _away. Charlie's wolf had chosen a human as a mate and they needed to manage the situation before it became dangerous. It was already heading in that direction at a breakneck speed. She was _lucky_ that Charlie had done her transformation in a closed environment instead of outside. Unfortunately, Charlie seemed to have _very _little control of her transformations.


	22. Chapter 22

"You know," Quinn says as she looks at Charlie who seemed annoyed that her mother was fussing over her. "That scar on your face makes me the pretty twin."

"Fuck you," Charlie muttered only to get tweaked by her mother gently tugging on her ear.

"Language. What were you thinking?" Judy says running a hand over Charlie's cheek and looking at the seven stitches that lined the bridge of Charlie's nose and ran down her cheek. Her sister had done an absolute number on her daughter, at least the other damage wasn't as visible.

"I was thinking that Aunt Cassie is a bitch," Charlie grumbled only to have her mother tweak her ear again. "What? You know it's true," Charlie muttered under her breath. "She was messing with my mate I had to. I don't even know what happened—I just got super angry and honestly—I don't remember."

"Well, you need to rest," Judy insists. She would talk with Cassandra who was probably raiding the fridge as they spoke.

"I'm fine—I just need to call Santana." Charlie insists and glances at her family who was still in her room. "I'm _fine_. My face doesn't even—"

Quinn threw a pillow at Charlie's face watching as her sister and smirks when Charlie starts cursing in pain. She ignores the pointed look that her mother shoots her and gets up to go and bother her aunt Cassandra. She had actually paid for dance lessons for her glee club, and she planned to collect.

"What were you _thinking_!" Russell roared loudly his voice booming through the house as the door slammed shut.

Quinn winced, it was going to be one of those days as she watched her father make a beeline towards the kitchen. Well there went any hope of getting her aunt to choreograph for them. Charlie always had to go and make a mess of everything.

"I was thinking that I was going to do your job and snap Charlie out of her little infatuation. What were you thinking she's a _teenager_, the moment that you say no she's going to do the exact opposite because it's forbidden and everyone fucking knows that forbidden sex is so much hotter than regular sex."

"Santana is—"

"_Human_. I know. It happened under _your_ watch which is only proof of what a piss poor alpha you are," Cassandra snaps at him, a smirk playing on her face as Russell growls and his massive body shivers. Two fights in several hours this was going to be a _good _day. Now all she needed to do was find someone to fuck and today would be the best day she'd had in years.

"Stop it. Not in the house," Judy's voice snaps from where she's standing behind Quinn who immediately jerks up to her feet and stumbles down the stairs. "You're not _teenagers_, and you're both certainly not pups who need to constantly fight each other. There's something wrong with your daughter—_your _niece and you _both _need to fix it. Do _not _make me call your fathers."

Quinn glanced back at her father and aunt who seemed to have backed off a bit. "Wow mom—"

"Don't wow mom me, you're supposed to be the _responsible_ one, why in the world did you think that this was a good idea?" Judy frowns.

"I went because Charlie would have done it anyway and I needed to make sure aunt Cass didn't tear out her throat. Plus, there was no way in hell I was going to let Charlie get ahead of me like that," Quinn responds. "She's been on some sort of mission as of late ever since dad forbade her from seeing Santana. Which you know, didn't work."

"Because it's _not_ a simple infatuation," Cassandra points out before going back to making her sandwich, dumping a pile of meat onto the bread. "It's a full-blown mating bond, she wouldn't have turned if it wasn't."

"We don't mate with humans—"

"Yes, because it's practical, and for the most part we find another one of our kind and the bond just snaps into place. It happens for most of us, but it's _not _unheard of for one of our kind to bond with a human. But this—this needs to be managed the _right _way, because I didn't even teach her how to shift back and forth, it just exploded out of her, and that means her transformations are _unstable_. She's a danger to herself and everyone around her, _especially_ this Santana person." Cassandra interrupted and looked at her sister.

"Bullshit," Russell snapped. "This bond isn't some _mate_ bond. The mate bond goes two ways and humans don't get them. She's imprinted or something onto this human and has grown attached."

"It doesn't _matter_ how they bonded, it matters that they bonded. Or that Charlie put a mate bond in place, and there is nothing we can do now to change that. Denying that it exists isn't helping the situation if anything it's making the problem _worse_. Infinitely worse. Russell, you think I'd be here eating your food and dealing with your shitty attitude if this wasn't a real issue? Well yes, probably to eat your food, but certainly not to deal with your bullshit. This is a problem, for some strange reason my sister thought you were a halfway decent alpha. So, act like one."

Russell exhaled deeply and frowned at Cassandra. "No one asked for your help."

"Your daughter did, so yeah someone did ask for my help."

Russell bristled, before turning and pushing past Judy and Quinn and heading to his daughter's room. It was a betrayal but he needed to deal with Charlie first. Cassandra was a pain to fight and he had heard that she had apparently torn Charlie's face in two. Concern, then anger, then hurt. In that order. He knocks on the door but doesn't wait for Charlie to tell him to stay out as he enters her room and walks up to her and tilts her head up so he can get a better look at her face. "I noticed her limp," Russell says after a moment. "Nice job, next time go for the throat."

Charlie smacks his hand away and pulls back, "What do you think I was trying to do?" She wasn't an idiot; her aunt had simply been to agile and for a simple throat lunge. Though if she was being honest, she truly couldn't remember what had happened. She was sure that her wolf wasn't a moron though, and knew the basics of fighting another wolf. "If you're going to yell at me then go ahead. I'm not sorry I went to aunt Cass, and if you're going to try and get me to submit then fine, whatever, still not sorry that I went. I wanted to protect my mate from _you_."

Russell hesitated for a moment, what happened next was going to be important. As much as he loathed to admit it, Cassandra was _probably _right. There was a frantic look in Charlie's eye that he hadn't _noticed_ before. "When your mother's father told me no, I was ready to rip him a new one. He couldn't stand in my way your mother was _mine_, she was mine. So, we fought, and I won—_barely_. Your mother was not _thrilled _that I had to beat her dad to get her, but she understood. She understood why I did it, I _had_ to do it. Santana isn't _one of us_. And she's far too young to make that decision to take the curse. She'll be a _mutt_, without status in our world. You know that—"

"I'll protect her. She'll be _my _mate, what does it matter if she's a mutt? There are plenty of mutts around. If she's my mate she'll live like one of us." Charlie insists immediately. "She's my _mate_." Charlie stresses.

"So, your aunt believes," Russell muttered. Cassandra was right this was a problem. It would only get worse, Charlie would only get more unbalanced. The space seemed to be good for them, because he could remember when he had met Judy. It had been hell not to see her every day, but Charlie didn't have a _normal _case. She couldn't _feel_ what Santana wanted, she hadn't had sex with Santana either. It was a matter of time before it happened, then the problem would get worse. Desperation made people crazy and it was worse for them. "Invite her to the house."

Charlie narrowed her eyes staring at her dad suspiciously. She would fight him too if she needed to. "Why?"

"Because Charlotte, you're going to need a controlled environment if you're going to tell her what you are and explain to her that you're her mate."

"That's—"

"I'm aware it's against the rules, but you _trust _her don't you, and if she's going to be your mate then she needs to understand. She needs to learn what's in store for her. Which means that there are consequences if she rejects you. She's sixteen and _human_, you're basically asking for hand in marriage."

Charlie grinned, "Really?"

"Yes. But if she says no Charlotte, if she decides it's not what she wants, then that's it. You'll be going to live with your grandfather."

"Which one?" Charlie asks crossing her arms.

"Pop-Pop," Russell responds watching as Charlie's eyes widen. "Alaska is a far enough distance from Santana and hopefully that distance will help you heal. I believe that your wolf thinks Santana is your mate, I know that you think that, but there are consequences. And if Santana says no—Alaska will be good for you. All that open space you can work things out."

Charlie's jaw dropped. She liked her Pop-Pop just fine but Alaska _sucked_. "She'll say yes," Charlie insists immediately. She _believed _in Santana. She had to say yes.


	23. Chapter 23

Santana pushed the food around on her plate, so deep in thought that she missed the worrying look Carlos shared with Shelby. She _knew_ Charlie wouldn't cheat on her, that much was clear.

But something was still wrong. Charlie was short and snappy on the phone, practically demanding that she come over for dinner that Friday and Santana couldn't help the feeling that Charlie was going to break up with her.

It was the only thing that made sense.

Charlie was perfect. She was eighteen, the soccer star of McKinley and of _course_ she was going to break it off with the comic book nerd from Carmel. What did she expect? For Charlie to put her entire life on hold for two years while Santana finished High School?

Why would she do that? Especially when Charlie could have any girl she wanted?

"Everything okay, Santanita?" Carlos asks, breaking her out of her thoughts.

She startles a little, practically having forgotten that anyone else was in the room and looks up. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Rachel flicks her eyes towards Santana and makes a face, "Did Charlie break your heart already?"

"Uh, _no_. She was in a minor accident and sliced open her face, I'm just worried about her," Santana lies. "For a soccer player, she's not very graceful."

That wasn't what she was expecting and her source at McKinley hadn't mentioned anything. "Well, on the bright side now you can tell her and Quinn apart."

"_Rachel_," Shelby groans.

"They're _identical_ twins," Rachel says defensively. "Well not anymore they're not but they were."

Santana shook her head, she didn't want to deal with Rachel's crazy conspiracy theories. Instead she pushes her plate away, "I think I'm done, I've got homework and I'm going to check to see if she's taking care of herself. She got fifteen stitches in her face."

"What did she do? Get into a knife fight?" Rachel asked seriously.

"She crashed into a table, trying to chase her aunt down, or something," Santana shrugs.

"Oh, you mean the one that abandoned them in the mall or something?" Shelby shook her head. "It's probably for the best that we didn't hire Cassandra, if that's how she treats her family I shudder to think of what her training would be like."

"We probably wouldn't be worried about McKinley being able to compete with us." Rachel mutters under her breath.

Santana rolls her eyes and glances at her father who still has a look of concern on his face. "I'm fine, I'm really just worried about her is all. I don't even think she understands you need to change the dressing."

Carlos rolled his eyes, "Of course not, that one's a keeper right there," he says sarcastically.

"_Carlos_. We're supposed to be supportive."

"She and that dog of hers nearly ate me out of house and home, it's not normal," Carlos grumbled.

Santana shook her head and decided to take her leave before her family could start bickering about the Fabray's. She needed to figure out how to save her relationship. Closing her bedroom door behind her, she paces, deep in thought.

She needed to keep Charlie interested in her, that much was clear. She had overheard from some of the popular girls in her class talking about sending their boyfriends nudes, maybe it was something that Charlie expected. She bites her lip and glances at herself in the mirror, she wasn't exactly comfortable doing something like that, she'd _heard_ the stories of it backfiring spectacularly but she knew Charlie wasn't like that.

She bites her lip and tries to quell her nerves at the thought of sending Charlie a sexy pic. She's really going to do this. Even if she doesn't know what exactly a sexy pic entails. Did she have to be naked? The thought made her a little squeamish, before finally deciding that she would just take the pic in her bra. That should be sexy enough.

Right?

She wasn't sure she knew, but she had to try. She shirks her shirt off and pulls her hair out of its ponytail, letting her dark wavy hair flow over her shoulders and gets her phone ready to take a selfie in the mirror. She stops short, wondering. Was she supposed to smile? Or—

She was overthinking this. Definitely.

She definitely needed to have bedroom eyes, whatever that meant, something that suggested she _wanted_ Charlie. It wasn't hard, she liked kissing Charlie and Charlie was super respectful of her boundaries, not that she knew what those were, but Charlie kept her hands above the shirt and generally resting on her hips. She pouts her lips a bit, that was always attractive, before taking the selfie and looking at the picture. She bites her lip, she could see all of her flaws in the photo and it seemed silly to even be doing this.

What if Charlie didn't find it attractive? What if she took one look at the picture and decided she wasn't _mature_ enough to be with her. She slips her shirt back on and studies the picture once, well she had already taken the picture.

Santana bites her lip before exhaling, maybe Charlie would send her one back, this could be there thing or whatever, till she was ready, to actually go all the way with Charlie. She was simply going to have to take the plunge, as she sends the photo to Charlie.

As soon as the photo is sent, she immediately panics. If Charlie is going to break up with her, is that going to be enough to stop it? What had she been thinking? She should have—

Her phone dings with a reply from Charlie almost immediately, cutting off her internal panic and she scrambles to open her text.

**Are you trying to kill me?**

Santana blinks and bites her lip, a small smile forming, as Charlie sent another message.

**This is a serious question Santana. I nearly fell down the stairs.**

She feels a swell of relief at the thought. If Charlie wants her, she can't possibly be planning on breaking up with her. The next message, though, cuts her and only solidifies her worst fears.

**They were awesome, but don't send those again.**

Fuck.

**I need to be able to function and I can't be distracted by how attractive you are. My dad's already complaining about my phone bill and the water bill. Last thing I need is for him to think I have a phone addiction.**

Santana exhales again and reads the message, once more it wasn't that Charlie found her unattractive. Which meant that she was still interested, it was difficult to read her sometimes. But there was something that caught her attention, and she immediately texts Charlie back.

**Water bill?**

Charlie sends back a blushing emoji.

**Some of us have needs when a hot girl sends them pics like that.**

A hot girl? Not even her girlfriend? Santana bites her lip, maybe she's just being ridiculous.

**Well, I wouldn't know. No one ever sends me pictures.**

When Charlie doesn't respond right away she flops back down on her bed and looks up at her ceiling, there were days where she felt like she was dreaming, the nerd never _really_ got the athlete, they just didn't mesh well but Charlie seemed to be different, and she felt bad for doubting her. Her phone buzzes on her pillow and she grabs it and opens up the text.

**How's this?**

Santana scrolls down and her eyes widen at the sight of Charlie topless and wearing only a pair of very tight boxers that were pulled down enough so she could see a weird looking scar on Charlie's hip. But her eyes focus on Charlie's abs, before her eyes trail upward so she can see Charlie's breasts. She nearly drops the phone her face turning a bright red. She had definitely been overthinking it. With a confidence she's surprised she possesses, she types out a quick reply.

**Not sure. Maybe you should send more.**

She doesn't have to wait long before a reply comes right back.

**Nuh-uh. I'm onto you, Lopez. That's going to have to be good enough. No more pics, you're going to kill me.**

Santana grins and looks at the picture, it would simply have to do and she would certainly study every inch of this photo—for science, _obviously_.


	24. Chapter 24

"My eyes are up here, Lopez," Charlie teases, watching as Santana flushes and looks back up at her face. "I mean yeah I know, the stitches are a bit much but—" Charlie gestured to the large gash on her cheek and nose, that had been stitched up neatly.

Santana blinked and glanced up at Charlie her cheeks flushing in embarrassment at having been caught for the second time already. "Sorry, sorry," she mumbles. "I just—you know trying to get my mind off meeting your parents. I mean it's not like they bite, right?" She blinks when Charlie doesn't immediately try and comfort her. "Oh god, your parents bite!"

"They don't bite," Charlie says after a moment looking at Santana a smile on her face. "My dad even promised to be _nice_, I mean his version of nice and a normal person version of nice are probably two separate things. I mean I hope you brought your appetite Santana, mom has made a feast. Don't worry about it, just point to what you want or tell me and I'll make sure you get some before dad and Quinn eat it all."

"Wait—when you say it like that it's like you're suggesting that you fight over food," Santana watches as Charlie slowly grins. "They eat like you, don't they?"

"It's _genetic_, you should see our food bill at the end of the month, plus I'm sure my family is keeping some of the nearby farmers in business," Charlie mused. "Just don't be afraid to speak up. Also, don't be afraid to stab Quinn with a fork if she gets anywhere near your food."

Santana stared, wondering if Charlie was being serious or joking but she looked _serious_, "Charlie, I don't know how to say this delicately—"

"I'm aware that my family is super weird and embarrassing," Charlie flashes Santana her crooked smile. "I would rather avoid this like the plague, my mother will probably tell you embarrassing stories about me but I need you to remember that she probably can't tell me and Quinn apart. So, it was _probably_ Quinn who did all those humiliating things, while I was a perfectly behaved angel."

Santana scoffed at that, and when she feels Charlie's eyes on her she shrugs, "Look, I love you but, there is no way that I believe that you were a perfectly behaved angel." When Charlie keeps staring at her she blinks, "What?"

"You love me?" Charlie questions bluntly, watching in delight as she watches as the embarrassment slowly crosses Santana's face.

"I just mean—" Santana bites her lip nervously, glancing down at the ground for a moment. They'd only been going out for a few weeks, Charlie was going to think that she was clingy. "It's a figure of—I just mean—"

"I—" Charlie stops herself and Santana feels her own panic grow.

"It's not like you have to say it back." Santana rushes to amend quickly. Charlie's hesitation just makes her own panic worse. What has she done so wrong that Charlie doesn't even _want_ to say it back.

"It's not that I don't want to say it back, I just—I have something to show you," Charlie says after a moment. "And I need you to not freak out, or you know scream."

"You already told me about your body Charlie," Santana reminds her.

"I wasn't you know—completely honest, that's why I have to show you something. I need you to know everything before you say that you love me and I trust you, I trust you completely, which is why I'm sharing this with you," Charlie glances over at Santana as they pull into her driveway. Her parents had wanted to get a good read on Santana before she could tell her, but she had never been patient and she wanted Santana to know her completely. "Come on," Charlie says ushering Santana into the garage and closing it behind them.

"Look, whatever it is, I mean I don't think it—" Santana immediately scrambled backwards her back hitting the door of the garage as Charlie's eyes started to glow an eerie luminescent color. "What the—"

"It's fine." Charlie rushes to explain, the luminescence dimming. "Really, I promise. I'm not going to hurt you. I need you to understand that I could _never_ hurt you." Charlie insists taking a step forward, when Santana flinches she sighs. This, wasn't the smoothest of transitions she could have made, but she needed Santana to see that her wolf was _relatively_ harmless. "I'm _Fuzzbutt_."

Santana was frozen, stunned. She had to be dreaming, or hallucinating or _something_. "I don't—" The door that leads into the house swings open and she spots Quinn who looked out of breath.

"_Charlie,_ don't you—" Quinn begins, but it was too late as she watches Charlie's skin begin to ripple, as the hair begins to grow and she drops onto her hands. Charlie's clothes tear in the transformation causing Quinn to groan and immediately walks down the steps getting ready to pounce on Charlie if she attempted to do something stupid like attack Santana.

Santana stares watching in fascination and mild horror, as Charlie finishes transforming. The wolf in front of her nipping at Quinn before shaking out her fur, before sitting down and staring at her. It was obvious Fuzzbutt was waiting for her to make the first move. "I can't believe this!" Santana gasped, rushing toward Fuzzbutt—_Charlie_ and patting her enthusiastically. "Werewolf? You're a werewolf? They exist? I was _right_!"

Charlie nudged Santana back down with her head and began to sniff her, before peering at her and deciding to lick her face, making sure that it was a slobbery lick. She places both her front paws on Santana's shoulders to get better access. It amuses her when Santana laughs and wipes at her face and she immediately rolls off Santana and backs up her tail wagging happily as she gets ready to pounce again. Charlie shakes her head, bowing down low in a playful stance and barks at the excitement. She jumps backward and lays down with her paws flat against the ground her tail wagging wildly.

Quinn turns to stare at Santana, "You're _okay _with this? How are you not screaming?" This was not the reaction that she had expected from any human and yet Santana was _fine_. "You're supposed to be screaming." Quinn ignores Charlie's barking and focuses on Santana, this wasn't supposed to be happening.

Santana looks up at Quinn, "Well, it _explains_ a lot, like the eating—" Santana paused for a moment and turned to look at Fuzzbutt narrowing her eyes slightly. The implications suddenly hitting her, "You were _shot_, and wounded and I took care of you."

"Probably saved my sister's life, which is probably the _only_ reason my father is even entertaining this idea," Quinn shrugs when Charlie growls at her. Quinn continues to ignore Charlie and stare at Santana, "I think this _obviously_ goes without saying but you can't tell anyone. Not your parents, certainly not Rachel."

"Well of _course_ I'm not going to tell Rachel. She's a huge blabber mouth. But to be fair, once she told everyone she knew, no one would probably believe her."

"That's just great." Quinn rolls her eyes, though it lacks the animosity that Santana would expect her to have. In another situation, she might have noticed, but today she was simply overwhelmed with the new revelations. "I'll go get Charlie some clothes."

"Clothes—you're naked right of course you are," Santana turns to Charlie petting her, and scratching behind her ears. She was just so damn fluffy. "I have a million questions—which can wait till you can talk again. I mean, I never would have guessed this is what you were hiding from me. I thought you were going to break up with me."

Charlie cocks her head to the side and Santana can almost feel the question coming from her girlfriend. _Huh?_

"I know, I was overreacting—" Charlie licks her face and Santana smiles. This was going to be _awesome_. "I can't believe that I get to dress you up again." At that Charlie actually whined loudly and tried to run away causing her to laugh and wrap her arms around Charlie's neck hugging her tightly. She freezes when the hair starts to recede and she can feel the bones snapping and popping as Charlie shifts, and suddenly there are two very strong arms wrapped around her.

"So, you know," Charlie murmurs in her ear, "I love you too. I just needed you to _see _all of me, the good the bad and the furry."

Santana grins and pulls back for a moment only to realize that Charlie was _very _naked in front of her, causing her to flush and to scramble back a bit, if only so she could get a better look. "And the really large," Santana nods making a gesture at Charlie's groin.

Charlie glances down and her eyes widen immediately, as she immediately cups herself and twists around so she's facing the wall. "Santana! You're not supposed to look!"

Santana was about to retort when she remembered something important, "I got changed in front of you when I thought you were just a dog!"

"I didn't look! I respected your privacy," Charlie insists. So maybe she had peeked once or twice, but she had been a wolf, it totally didn't count.

Santana laughed and hugged Charlie from behind, "I'm going to have to come up with a new nickname for you. Your butt isn't that fuzzy," Santana murmured, feeling Charlie shiver underneath her.


	25. Chapter 25

"So, I mean, if you exist what other preternatural creatures exist?" Santana asked Charlie who was busy pulling together a couple of beanbag chairs so that they could get comfortable. Quinn seemed to be lurking and staring at her as if she was the odd one, but she ignored it. She had a _million_ questions and Charlie wasn't answering them fast enough.

"Preternatural?" Charlie's face scrunched up slightly. Santana had already bombarded her with a million questions and now she was using words that she didn't really understand.

Quinn hummed impressed by Santana's vocabulary, "Preternatural is exceeding the natural or regular but not exceeding the laws of physics; a possibility however rare in nature," Quinn said crossing her arms over her chest. "You need to crack open a book sometimes."

Charlie scowled, "I'm not stupid—"

"Debatable," Quinn said before turning to Santana. "If you _must _know, shifters are common. Wolves, bears, panthers, each region has its own type of shifter. As for vampires and witches, the latter exists the former does not. We keep to the shadows because humanity—"

"Fears what it doesn't understand, of course. I read a lot of X-men," Santana nods. "I promise I won't tell a soul."

Quinn studies Santana for a moment, before shaking her head. "Your girlfriend is a _nerd_," she says finally waving Charlie off. "I'm going to tell mom that you somehow found someone who is trustworthy so she shouldn't worry. Guess you're not going to live with Pop-Pop after all. Shame, I was going to turn your room into a library. Well, there's still time."

Charlie rolled her eyes and pulled Santana on top of her as she flopped onto the comfortable bean bag chairs and nuzzled her gently, she would deal with Quinn later, right now she just wanted to be near her mate. "You're not, scared of me, are you?"

"I mean it was a surprise, and I think I'm still trying to wrap my mind around all of this," Santana admits. "I mean you're _fuzz butt_. I can't believe it, I mean it certainly explains the food—I guess you need all that energy." Charlie shoots her a wolfish grin and she can't help but laugh and kiss Charlie's cheek gently, the stitches were gone and the wound looked like it was already half healed. "It also explains why you healed from that gunshot—_you were shot_. How the hell did that happen."

"I don't remember, I just know that I was after a rabbit, and I was close and then I heard a bang and felt pain. So, I ran away, and sort of stumbled along until I found you. You smelled—nice. If that makes sense. Not a fan of the cage though, you were _relatively_ safe with me."

"Relatively?" Santana asks her eyes widening.

"I thought about using Rachel as a chew toy a few times," Charlie admitted and smiled when Santana snorted. "I mean, the only time you were in any real danger was when I was disorientated and confused, I was stuck in that body until the next full moon basically or until my dad turned me back. I don't like being caged up either, I mean I can understand why your father insisted but when you were gone it was _boring _as fuck."

"I thought you slept all day."

"I mean I did, and then I raided your fridge when I got hungry. Also, I don't eat dog food, it smells _disgusting_, and I have no idea what it's going to do to my intestines," Charlie gives Santana a pointed look.

"I _knew _you were communicating with me," Santana grins. She hadn't been crazy, Charlie had _understood_ her. But it causes her to stop for a moment and look at Charlie, "If I hadn't rescued you—would we still be together?"

"I don't know," Charlie admits. "I mean I know it seems weird, but I knew who you were and I knew that I liked you. Even if you were cruel and dressed me up in funny costumes and took pictures. I like you, you're my mate. My wolf chose you, and I agree with her choice. I'd like to think that my wolf would have chosen you without the fact that you saved me. I liked cuddling with you."

"I don't remember you cuddling with me so much as deciding the bed was yours and that I got a small corner," Santana reminded her. "Also, you owe me several burgers and milkshakes."

"You're the one that took your eyes off your food in front of me. I mean how was I supposed to know that you weren't sharing with me? Rule of the day, keep your eyes on your food at all times. I was _hungry_ and burgers are my _favorite_."

"Everything is your favorite," Santana teases and gets a quick kiss from Charlie. She relaxes as Charlie's arm tightens around her waist, it's comfortable being like this with her. She had known that something was off with Charlie, but now that she knew the big secret she felt better. Charlie trusted her. "So, your wolf chose me as her mate? What does that mean?"

Charlie hesitates for a moment, she knew her father had insisted that she tell Santana everything—and it's not like she wanted to keep secrets from Santana but her girlfriend had just found out that she was a wolf. "Well—it's sort of—" Charlie frowns as she tries to think of the right words. "My wolf wants you and _only_ you, it's a choice, it means that I can't _be_ with anyone else just you. I mean it's this huge thing that happens between two wolves, but you're not a wolf so—for now it's not that important," Charlie promises.

"For now?" Santana frowns slightly wondering what that meant. "I mean the way you explained it—"

"We're animal people, I can bite you and you won't catch lycanthropy, your immune system is to robust and it would basically fight it off, you might get flu-like symptoms. No to turn a healthy human person they need to be very close to death, and most of them don't survive. Survival of the fittest, very few humans willingly make the decision to become one of us. It's not something that we have to deal with right now, if ever," Charlie rubs the back of her neck.

"Does that mean we're going to have to break up in the future because I'm human?" Santana presses.

"No. It doesn't, it means that we'll just have to work a bit harder at certain things. Also, it's not something that you should worry about, because my wolf won't form a mate bond with anyone else unless well—you die. So, don't do that."

Santana hesitates for a moment, maybe it was simply something she didn't understand and she certainly didn't want to seem ignorant. "It sort of sounds like marriage."

Charlie winces, this wasn't going well and she can hear something in Santana's voice that makes her heart hurt. Santana wasn't _one of them_ she didn't understand, she wouldn't understand until she became like her. But she needed to be rational Santana had _just _turned sixteen, she wasn't thinking forever yet. "It is sort of like marriage. But you're not a wolf Santana, I'm dating you as a human. So—you know human rules apply." She could feel her wolf bristle at that but she ignored it, for now she needed to make sure that Santana was completely okay with the idea. At this moment, she thought it was cool, but that was now. Her father wasn't even home yet to sniff out Santana and she was unsure of how that was going to go.

"Is that why your parents don't like me?" Santana asks after a moment whispering to Charlie.

Charlie smiles, and lowers her voice, "My mom can probably still hear us," she whispers back watching as Santana's eyes widen and her cheeks flush. "We've got _really good _hearing and senses in general. Also, I don't think my mom hates you. Right mom?" Charlie asks. Her mom had stopped moving in the kitchen which probably meant that she was listening to the conversation. She heard her mom inhale slightly before she began to move grabbing what she assumed was a tray of snacks.

"Of course, I don't, it's just this is all _new_. It's not exactly common for one of our kind to _bond_ with a human like this. We don't hate you, it's just that this is all so _new_." Judy says forcing a smile on her face. "We need to rethink the rules that we had for this, and we worry of course. All parents worry, your father is worried." Judy reminded Charlie putting a tray of bacon wrapped onion rings for the two of them to snack on. "It's very different from what we imagined."

"Oh," Santana shifts uncomfortably. "What type of rules?"

"You two can't have sex," Judy said bluntly watching as her daughter who had immediately tried to stuff her face with the food began to cough. "It's still hot dear," Judy informed her after a moment smiling as Santana pats Charlie on the back gently. "This _union_ isn't common, we need to make sure you're _both _safe and protected and we can't do that until we find someone who is in the same unique situation that you find yourself in. Despite my daughter's assurances, this isn't something that's going to be as simple as dating a human."

"Oh," Santana said Charlie had seemed to be brushing everything under the rug.

"_Mom_."

"You asked the question dear, I merely answered," Judy reminded her. "Thank you though, for taking such good care of my Charlie. You have no idea how grateful we are that she's okay. Also, I heard about these pictures that you took with her all dressed up—"

"Mom!" Charlie repeats forcefully.

"Oh, they're on my phone I'll show them to you later," Santana grins. She really needed to stop putting so much thought into this. Charlie was different, and maybe she had different cultures, but her family seemed relatively normal and sure she hadn't met the patriarch something that she was dreading but things were going alright all things considered. Charlie _loved_ her. She had a girlfriend who loved her not even Rachel could say that.


	26. Chapter 26

Russell stared at Santana from where he sat, of _course_, Charlie hadn't listened to his explicit instructions to _not _reveal herself without him being there to control the situation. It was reckless, and stupid and more importantly it was baffling. Charlie claimed that Santana was her mate, and yet his youngest child continuously put Santana at risk. Her flagrant disregard for his rules was driving him crazy.

"Russell, _dear_, you're staring. She's a guest and I think you're scaring her," Judy murmured under her breath before placing the largest steak in front of him. She could only hope that it would distract him.

Russell turns to Judy for a moment before grunting in reply, she was probably right but for once in his life, he didn't feel ravenously hungry. All he felt was _danger_, this wasn't a situation that he had ever personally prepared for and it bothered him that Charlie was so cavalier about the whole thing. "You're _human_," he says after a long moment, focusing on Santana and ignoring his family who had turned to look at him.

Charlie stopped piling food up on Santana's plate and narrows her eyes slightly, she _knew_ that judgmental tone. "You _promised_," she reminds him. He had promised that he wouldn't cause a scene and embarrass her but he was totally going to do it anyway.

"And you _promised_ that you would wait for my presence but you didn't," Russell reminds her and crosses his arms over his chest as he stared at Santana. There had to be _something _wrong with this situation that he simply wasn't seeing. Humanity hadn't been kind to the animal people which was why they _hid_ their communities, it was why they were so spread out. "I didn't actually think that she would agree to be your mate," he says finally, pausing as he studied Charlie's face. He had expected the outrage, but his daughter had always been a shitty liar, and there was a look of guilt in her eyes. "She didn't actually agree to become your mate, did she?"

Santana hesitates and chooses to speak up despite the weird tension she felt between Charlie and her father, it made her feel uneasy like a fight was going to break out. "Well, I have a lot of questions, I mean all of this is so new and amazing," Santana admits looking up at Russell who had turned his attention towards her. "I mean this is just so—_cool_."

Russell stared at Santana for a moment, disbelief crossing his features as he turned to his youngest daughter, _this _was who she had decided was going to be her mate? Someone who thought she was a side-show attraction? "Pretty cool? This is our _life, _this isn't some—"

"Russell, she's a teenager. A teenager that saved Charlie's life," Judy interrupts before he could get going. Santana probably had no idea of Russell's weird ticks, and what would set him off, and from her tone she could tell that Santana hadn't meant any harm in it.

Russell snorted, "Yes, and for that I am _eternally_ grateful. I'm surprised she's even lived this long to be frank with you, Charlie's headstrong, foolish and does incredibly stupid and dangerous things on a daily basis based on her silly whims," Russell frowned eying Charlie who promptly ignored him and continued to make sure that Santana had plenty to eat.

Quinn snorted in amusement at her father's characterization of her twin. It felt good to be the _favorite _child and to have both of her parent's approval. It was a rather rare thing indeed. So, when Charlie turns to glare at her she can only smile and take a bite of her mashed potatoes. "What? You're the _dipshit _that decided to run after a bunny. He's not wrong."

"Language," Judy sighs, this was going to quickly devolve and she adjusts her seat so she could intervene and protect Santana in case the three of them started to bicker like children _again_.

Charlie inhaled slowly, she could feel her wolf growing restless at the constant picking, so instead she simply places her hand on Santana's and flashes her a warm calming smile even if she didn't feel it on the inside. "She's my girlfriend and—Quinn I will stab you with this knife if you try and touch my food," Charlie turns grabbing her knife as Quinn withdraws her hand and flashes her a smirk.

"In front of your _girlfriend_?" Quinn teases and watches as Charlie drops the knife and turns and looks at Santana guiltily.

"She was trying to steal my _food_," Charlie insists defensively.

Santana stared slightly shocked at how _foreign _this was, but she had seen dogs arguing over food before this wasn't that _strange_ all things considered. "Don't look now but she's making another attempt," Santana says watching as Charlie turned and immediately smacked Quinn's hand away.

"_Quinn_, there's plenty on the table," Judy sighs rubbing her forehead. This was why they didn't have _company_.

Quinn flashed her mother a smile and shrugged it off. "Sorry."

Charlie eyed her twin and then turned to look at her father who was waiting patiently. "She already promised that she wasn't going to tell anyone and you're being unfair. There's a _learning _curve, she has a lot of questions—you couldn't have expected her to agree to become my mate, she doesn't even really understand what that means—"

Russell held up his hands and studied Santana, before looking at his wife. "We are mates, it runs deeper than just a piece of paper, she is the only one I can ever be with, we share our feelings our thoughts, through the bond we share. It's a spiritual and mystical experience that you can't even begin to _grasp_, or comprehend unless you go through it yourself. We are soulmates, and the bond we share can't be broken even in death. Yes, I can bond again but it will never be the same. So, _excuse _me if I find it hard to believe that Santana agreed to be your mate, in a way that a _human_ can comprehend its _marriage_, a marriage that no piece of paper, and no court can break. This is _forever_, and it's not something that you just nod your head at and hope for the best. It means _everything_ to us and I'm still unsure as to _how _Charlie formed half a bond with you. You are _human_. You can't mate and turning you into one of us—it's a death sentence if your body can't handle it. So, tell me Santana is that what you signed up for?"

Charlie growled lowly causing Santana to turn to her, it sounded so animalistic and she could see the flash as Charlie's eyes began to shift for a moment and she doesn't know why she reaches for her, touching her lower back causing Charlie to stop for a moment. This was _weird_, and as much as she wanted to be okay with it, Charlie's father was talking about something that scared the crap out of her. She was _just _sixteen. "We're taking it slow—"

Russell laughed narrowing his eyes slightly, "I love my daughters, despite the fact they are a _permanent _pain in my ass, but my daughter is not patient, she is impulsive and doesn't think things through. It might not happen _now_ but the pressure is already on for you to say yes, and soon the conversation will turn to when you will be ready. You're _sixteen_ and human Santana. This isn't something that you're going to be ready for anytime soon."

"Dad," Charlie snapped at him.

"She saved your life, which means that I _owe _her the full story something that you seem to be hiding from her, because you're afraid she'll leave. I can see it on her face, she's scared at the idea of mating. She's sixteen Charlie and she isn't one of us. You two are free to continue dating, but as I'm sure your mother has informed you _sex_ is off the table. It will only compound your instability problems, I'm not even going to begin to deal with your emotional instability. Whether you care to admit it or not you will become a danger to her, and I do not want to be in a position where I am forced to choose between putting you down and protecting a human. You _know_ our laws."

Santana turned to Charlie who didn't look like she was about to back down anytime soon, "What is he talking about?"

"Charlie's already pushing it by telling you, this situation isn't exactly _common_," Quinn speaks up as Charlie looks away. "Maybe it was the month she spent as a wolf, but she's been completely out of balance and deciding that you were her mate. We've always been in tune with our wolves, but that doesn't mean that we can completely control them, in a stressful situation when her emotions are too high she could become a danger, as in she could attack. Wolves are not meant to be domesticated and a situation could arise where she does attack you. The rules are clear on what we're supposed to do in that case. Charlie's put us _all _in this situation."

"I'm not the _only_ person in this house that's fallen for a human," Charlie retorts immediately.

Quinn's gaze hardened at that, "I don't actually _like _Rachel and even if I did, I'm no idiot I'm not acting on anything. Rachel is fun to fuck with even Santana would probably agree with me on that, I'm fucking with her. Not fucking her, just _fucking_ with her."

"Charlie. Quinn. We have a guest," Judy snapped immediately, she was never going to be able to host a dinner party and this one had been ruined.

Charlie rolled her eyes and turned to Santana, none of this mattered all that mattered was what Santana thought if controlling herself for a few years was all it would take then that's what she would do. "Santana—" Charlie begins as Santana turns to look at her and it's that _look_ that tells Charlie everything she needed to know. "You're going to break up with me, aren't you?"

"I—" Santana hesitates for a moment, she _liked_ Charlie, she liked her alot but she was feeling overwhelmed with all the information that had just been thrown at her. Charlie was already thinking _permanent marriage_, she was in high school. "I mean—this is all too much." There was a pause for a moment where Charlie's eyes flashed for a brief second and she looks away. "I mean maybe I just need time but—"

Charlie tossed her napkin onto her plate, she didn't want to be excused or anything she just needed to get out of here. It suddenly felt suffocating, and what's worse she could _feel_ her wolf just at the surface. She didn't know who she was angriest, her family for ruining something that _made _her happy, for putting faith in Santana or _herself_ for thinking that Santana was it.

Quinn watched Charlie for a moment before turning to Santana, and moves to stop her from following Charlie. "What did I just say about enhanced emotions? Look, after dinner. I'll take you home give you both some time to figure it out."

Santana nods after a moment, she just needed a day or two to think. They might still be able to figure it out.


	27. Chapter 27

"Are you _sure _this is okay Brittany? I'm _human_, I'm already the odd one out and I don't want to cause a scene or something. I know that there are already people who are pissed that I'm the only human who got into the OSU vet school. I know I'm not supposed to be here." Santana said as she fiddled with her dress. She had never been to one of these _events_ before. It was the first time that she had been invited and she was nervous. Even if the animal people were _human_, there was a beast lurking very close to the surface.

Brittany grinned brightly as she wrapped an arm around Santana's shoulders and pulled her into a hug, "It'll be _fine _San. I invited you and it's not like you're the _only_ human that knows about our kind. Just look at this as a learning experience, you know seeing Therianthropes in their _natural _environment, trying to find a mate and form a bond. Just pretend you're like—Jane Goodall."

Santana winced, but relaxed in Brittany's arms. She was about the only person in her vet's class that talked to her and treated her like a human being. Which was surprising given that Brittany was a _cat_ of all things. "That's actually _not _a good comparison. I don't want to be the Jane Goodall of the therianthropes. It's a party, right? So, it's supposed to be fun and everyone is supposed to have a good time. Is there anything that I need to know? I heard that these events could get a little—_violent_."

Brittany nods, "They do get violent sometimes, alcohol and alphas are not a good combination when it comes to finding a mate." When Santana's eyes go wide she laughs, "Don't worry you're not an alpha, and you're _human_. We can't form a mate bond with a _human_. Just don't get involved."

Santana bites her lip, deciding to keep that one close to her chest. She wasn't even _sure _that Charlie _was _her mate, she hadn't heard from her since that fateful night. Quinn had been nice and understanding and she had only gotten into the program because Russell Fabray had pulled some strings for. She was _grateful_ to the Fabray's but she still wasn't convinced Charlie was her _mate_. Nothing she had read had even suggested that it was possible for Therianthropes to mate outside of their own classification. There were no panther-lycans running about. "No problem there."

Brittany smiles before pausing, "Also stay away from the therianthropes that go through a heat cycle you can tell—oh wait, I'll let you know who to avoid."

"Thanks Britt, I don't think I could do this without—"

"Santana?"

Santana froze, that voice was familiar, one that she hadn't heard in a few months, if it hadn't been years. She flicks her gaze to a blonde who was currently surrounded by a few other women in line, they were quite possibly other wolf-people. Her eyes widen and a small smile crosses her face, to see yet another friendly face even if Quinn didn't look thrilled by her presence. She probably shouldn't be surprised to spot Quinn _here _of all places, it was a 'mixer' and Quinn was looking for a mate as well. "Quinn! What are you doing back in Ohio?" She had heard from Rachel that Quinn was at Yale, and she knew from Shelby that Rachel had many trips to 'spy' on her old rival. She had simply rolled her eyes and wished Rachel luck, assuming that the two of them had begun to hook up.

Quinn pulled away from the throng of women who were looking to be her mate and studied Santana carefully for a moment before tilting her eyes towards the large warehouse doors. She could hear the strong beats, and she could smell the pheromones that laced the ear. She _hated_ these things. "You mean in Ohio? Apart from the fact that my parents still live here?"

Santana rolled her eyes, "I mean yeah, but aren't there mixers in Connecticut?"

Quinn narrows her eyes as she flicks her eyes to the blonde standing beside Santana for a moment, _cat_. She could never tell _what _type of feline, but she didn't seem to be a threat, even as she moved in a fashion that suggested that she was going to protect Santana. "Not like this. My parents are insisting that I find a mate, so here I am. I wasn't going to go to Wyoming, or California, or _worse_ Florida."

At the look of confusion on Santana's face, Brittany nudged her gently. "Those are the epicenters for people like us," she whispers quietly to Santana.

Santana nods at the statement and spots that Brittany's body was tense, like she was getting ready to pounce. There wasn't actually some blood feud between cats and dogs, that she knew of but maybe Brittany could sense the danger that seemed to exude off Quinn. It was different than in high school, Quinn was different. "Relax Brittany, I know Quinn. Her father is the one that pulled the strings to get me into the vet program here."

"Oh—but Santana she's an—"

"I know, it's _okay_, she's friendly—most of the time," Santana whispers back.

Quinn arched an eyebrow, "I can hear you," she reminds them both and sighs when the other blonde shoots her an amused smile. "Santana, you can't _be _here."

"Of course, she can. She's my guest!" Brittany says immediately scowling. "All because wolves are the only ones that can create other wolves doesn't mean that you're in charge of _everything_."

"Oh, for fucks sake, you can't be _here _because _she's _here," Quinn said, she couldn't deal with the annoyance that some had towards her community, and instead she points at the doorway. "Mom made me take her to this." She wasn't quite sure how Charlie would react it had been nearly eight years after all.

Santana blinks at the knowledge for a moment, before forcing a smile on her face, "She's trying to find a mate?"

Quinn narrowed her eyes for a moment before sighing, she wasn't getting paid enough for this. She wasn't getting paid at all in fact, which meant that this whole mess was _none _of her business. "That was so incredibly fake, please tell me you haven't kept some torch alive for my twin. Like of all the things I couldn't deal with right now that is it."

"Wait—what?" Brittany says turning to Santana. "You dated a wolf?"

"When I was sixteen, it was a thing—and I've dated other people Quinn. I mean I'm not dating anyone now because I'm focusing on school. You can't fault me for being curious and being slightly _pissed _off, she abandoned me she didn't even say goodbye she just left—no emails, no texts, no _anything_. So, I'm just angry and irritated and I do want to give her a piece of my mind."

Quinn's shoulders slumped for a moment, her mother was _going _to murder her. She could already feel the headache coming on, "Right. Whatever you say. Look, personally I'd avoid making a scene, stay in your corner and she'll probably stay in hers. But you probably _aren't _going to do that which means just avoid getting eaten."

"You're not going to get _eaten_," Brittany insists immediately. "We don't _eat _people!"

Santana rolled her eyes and tugs on Brittany's arm, "That's Quinn, she's a bit of a bitch—"

"Heard that too," Quinn snipes but there's no malice in her tone as she heads back to the women that had surrounded her. She really hoped that Santana didn't get mauled or eaten, her parents would probably blame her.

Brittany glances at Santana for a moment, "You dated a _wolf_?"

"Dated as in past tense, we broke up and before I had time to think about it or regret it or _something_ she disappeared. Like just up and vanished, I tried calling her, I tried to talk to her, I mean I even showed up but she was simply gone. I mean it's no big deal, I just thought she loved me. Or something, I don't know. It's _complicated_, but I'm over her. I mean it's been what? Eight years? You move on you meet other people who don't just disappear." Santana frowns when Brittany doesn't stop staring at her. "Seriously it's no big deal."

"Except it _is _a big deal, wolves are the only group of animal people that can turn humans into animal people! I mean yeah the process is practically _lethal_ and as such practically forbidden—you dated a _wolf_ and you lived to tell tale about it?"

"Charlie was _harmless_, is harmless. I mean she could transform at will, and her wolf seemed to really enjoy being around me. I mean at the very least enjoyed eating all my food and deciding that my bed was clearly more comfortable than the cage that she was in."

"Cage?"

"She had been shot—I thought she was a wolf when I found her. My dad took care of her, she was lucky. I mean that I found her. She might have been chipped or something, or she could have been hit by a car. She was pretty out of it when I found her." Santana frowns slightly, "What?"

"You _lived_? That's when they're at their most dangerous."

Santana shrugged, she didn't know why it was so surprising Charlie seemed _sentient _as a wolf, maybe it was odd. Even with her classes, it wasn't as if she got to view and study them, they were suspicious of her, not that she blamed them. She could only imagine what the religious people would say or the fear that people would feel if people who could turn into panthers lived amongst them. Instead she chooses to scan the room, there are people dancing people talking and some are just getting more to drink. For a bunch of wild animals, she had seen more intense parties in high school.

Brittany frowned, there was totally more to the story and Santana wasn't giving her the juicy details. "So, where is she?" Brittany nudges Santana who suddenly had stopped and was laser focused at something that was across the room. Brittany immediately follows her gaze. There standing leaning against the back wall was an identical twin to the woman she had seen before who seemed to be staring back at Santana intently. Almost immediately Brittany grabs Santana's arm when she notices the wolf's eyes shift slightly, which seems to alert everyone around her. "_Santana_."

Santana immediately pulls her arm away from Brittany, Charlie wasn't going to hurt her she knew that much. Sure, she had made the promise years ago and had promptly decided to disappear on her thus hurting her in ways that she wasn't quite sure were imaginable. So instead she just keeps staring at Charlie daring her to make the first move. She was an _alpha,_ wasn't she? It's only for a moment but when Charlie suddenly looks away deciding she's had enough does her anger and hurt erupt. "Hell no. You don't just get to _ignore _me," she snips angrily.

"_San_. You're not supposed to make a scene!" Brittany hisses but quickly follows her. This couldn't end well.


	28. Chapter 28

Santana slips past another group of people keeping her gaze focused on Charlie. Her ex-girlfriend seemed to be aware that she was approaching, but she wasn't doing anything about it. She hadn't moved, she hadn't looked over at her again, in fact Charlie was just standing there. Like if she didn't move then Santana would simply forget that she had ran away, or perhaps she was simply hoping that she'd drop this six year _grudge_ that she had harbored over the way Charlie had just _abandoned _her.

Maybe it was some weird alpha power play, but at this point she certainly didn't care. Charlie was just a coward and if she needed to call her out for it in front of all of her therianthrope peers then so be it. "_Charlie_. I know you see me," Santana snaps when Charlie finally moves and it looks like she's about to leave the room. She takes another step towards Charlie only for someone to slam into her from the side nearly knocking her to the ground. "Watch it," Santana snaps as she catches herself, forgetting for a moment where she was.

The room goes dead silent as the large man turns on Santana immediately, he inhales deeply for a moment and a puzzled expression crosses his big dumb features. "Human? Who invited the human?"

Santana freezes for a moment but immediately juts out her chin, she wasn't afraid of him, "Well who invited the gorilla?" She sneers at him.

"_San_, he's a bear!" Brittany hisses quietly mortified at just how badly this was going. She had just wanted Santana to fit in a bit better in class, people still looked at her like the odd one out.

Santana swallowed, well that _wasn't _good, she flinches when he reaches for her closing her eyes. This was _probably_ going to hurt.

"Karofsky," A voice barked out cutting through all the noise and tension in the room, causing everyone to turn to the person who had spoken. "I know it makes you feel big and strong to pick on people who can't fight back but if you're looking for a fight tonight I don't mind tearing out a chunk of your flesh."

Santana turned to look at Charlie who was still leaning against the wall, her eyes were glowing under the light and quite a few people had moved away from her. She's about to say something when Brittany grabs her arm and pulls her away. Karofsky's attention was no longer on her and she was grateful. She exhales for a moment and looks at Brittany who looks slightly annoyed at her. "I'm _sorry_," she mumbles.

"You serious? I've seen all the pills you pop, no way you can take me on all by yourself. Can you even go through the change?" Karofsky sneers.

The quick exchange causes Santana to pause and turn to Brittany, "What drugs?" Brittany shrugs and Santana bites the inside of her cheek. So maybe there was more at play then she realized.

Charlie took a step forward and immediately the wolves that had been around her scattered, "I have no idea why don't we find out shall we?"

"_Charlie_," Quinn's voice barks out causing Charlie to stop for a moment. "For fucks sake, I can't leave you alone for a minute, can I?" Quinn brushes past Santana and Brittany not stopping as she steps between Karofsky and Charlie. "You know as well as I do that the moment she shifts, you're going to have every wolf in the building on your ass, the alpha's the beta's the omega's. Maybe in a one and one fight you _might _be able to take her, but against all of us? No one fights better in a pack then we do. So why don't you watch where you're going and learn some fucking manners."

Karofsky stares at Quinn for a moment before snorting and turning around, and walking back to his friends. "Whatever," he grunts shaking his head. "Fucking _wolves_."

Quinn flicks her eyes over to her twin for a moment, but when Charlie doesn't make a move she turns her attention back to Santana. "What part of do not make a scene do you not understand? I thought you were supposed to be—" Quinn stopped talking frowning when she noticed Santana pulling away from Brittany and attempting to make a beeline for Charlie. She turns to her twin for a moment before looking at Santana. "Seriously?"

"Can you blame her?" Brittany rolls her eyes. "Your twin is giving off some _serious_ pheromones. No wonder Santana feels drawn to her."

"Pheromones? I don't want to _fuck her_, I want to throttle her," Santana snapped causing the two blondes to turn to her. "She disappeared off the face of the earth for six years. I mean the only reason I even knew she was alive was because of you. She didn't call she didn't text, she just—_left_. So, let me go so I can go—I don't know beat her with a stick or something."

Quinn stared at Santana for a moment before shrugging her shoulders, she had only promised her mother that she would keep Charlie from fighting with other therianthropes. Santana was human and she doubted that Santana could leave any permanent damage. Besides it would be hilarious to watch Santana beat Charlie with a stick. "Throttle away."

Santana immediately pulls away from Brittany and practically runs towards Charlie stopping only a few feet away from her. She pauses for a moment before frowning, it honestly looked like no time had passed at all. She was a little taller, Charlie still _oozed_ sex appeal, though she was certain that it may have had something to do with the pheromones she was sending out like a wave. She narrows her eyes at her ex-girlfriend, who finally looks back at her, and she can't seem to find the words to say. She desperately wants to say something snappy to let Charlie know how upset she was but it's been six years, _six _years and all she can manage is a simple, "You abandoned me," her voice barely above a whisper.

Charlie stares at Santana for a moment before her shoulders slump. There was no defiance on her features as she shifts uncomfortably, "I wasn't—it wasn't safe to be near me. I just—_I couldn't_. Being near you when you didn't want to be my mate—" Charlie runs a hand through her hair. "My wolf wouldn't allow it. I needed to be away from you."

Santana swallows, "It was too much. I was sixteen and I just needed some time. It was just a day and I wanted to take it back, but you were gone. You were just—" Santana reaches and gently swats Charlie on the arm. "Gone. You were my best friend and you were just _gone_, like that. Like all the time we spend together didn't matter."

"All I've thought about for the past six years was the time we spent together, not much else to do when you're freezing your tits off in fucking Alaska," Charlie says with a frown, "I—missed you. Every day, I missed you." Charlie reaches for Santana's hand pausing when she pulls away.

"Yeah, well that's not good enough," Santana snaps at her, she exhales and looks around where there were other wolves just lingering. "Is this what you do now?"

"I can't _be_ with anyone else, I haven't been with anyone else," Charlie admits. "They hope that my wolf will choose them but it won't happen. The decision has already been made."

Santana shifts uncomfortably, there it was again, "Yeah well, I didn't wait for you." It's petty, and she has no idea why she even brought it up. But she felt the need to let Charlie know that she hadn't been some lovesick teenager who had waited for Charlie to get her act together. She hadn't had _many_ lovers, but there had been at least three girlfriends, and a few one night stands that were just as disappointing as dating other people had gone.

"I never expected you too," Charlie closes her eyes and inhales sharply for a moment. "I have to go. My medication is wearing off and I can't be near you right now. I'm sorry."

"So, you're just going to disappear? Once again, I'm going to see you in another six years?" Santana demanded.

Charlie exhales and opens her eyes, and pulls out her phone and hands it to Santana after unlocking it. "Here, put your number in and I promise I'll call."

Santana scoffs, "No, I'm not letting you out of my sight, for all I know you can have Quinn come up to me and tell me to leave you alone."

Charlie narrowed her eyes slightly for a moment before she shakes her head, "Fine, but if I tell you to leave then you _need _to leave. My shifting has been unstable as of late and I'm not sure how my wolf will react to you." She could feel it under the surface and she was unsure if her wolf was happy, or angry or desperate, it had been such a long time since she'd been at peace.


	29. Chapter 29

"You live here?" Santana questioned, frowning as she looked at the tiny apartment. It was _tiny_ bachelor apartment, that had no furniture except for a bed and a small coffee table, which held a beaten-up laptop. It was dark, with the only light fixture being in the even tinier kitchen. She crinkled her nose slightly as Charlie moved around the room, clearing a pathway.

"I do," Charlie answers simply not bothering to look up as she heads into an even tinier bathroom and opens the medicine cabinet and grabs the bottles and begins to pop the tops.

"_Why_?" Santana asked glancing around the tiny apartment, the only place to sit was on Charlie's bed and she shuffles over and takes a seat at the edge trying to balance carefully.

"Because it's _quiet_, it's small—it reminds me of the shitty little cabin I spent the rest of my adolescence and early adulthood in, till my grandfather died," Charlie shrugs. "Could be because it's all I can afford right now, I don't know." Charlie places each of the pill bottles on her small coffee tables and with practice begins to pull out two of the pills at a time, placing them on the table in order. "Why are you here?"

Santana scowled, she wasn't the same girl that Charlie had simply abandoned. She wasn't as insecure as she was back then. "I don't actually know, I mean it's been six years, but you fell off the face of the earth. I was fucking curious. I probably shouldn't have come."

"Probably," Charlie agrees as she stands up and heads to the small miniature fridge and opening it and grabbing two bottles of water and heading back offering one to Santana.

Taking it, Santana flicked her eyes towards the pills on the coffee table as Charlie began to adjust them once again. "Are you okay? I mean are you sick or something, those are a lot of pills." When Charlie doesn't answer her, and begins to pop the pills into her mouth and take a gulp of water after each she grimaces. "I mean Karofsky—the gorilla—bear or whatever he is, said you couldn't shift anymore."

Charlie finishes for a moment, "He's incorrect, I can shift, it's just _unstable_. It's why I have to take these to keep my wolf drugged up, so there isn't another _incident_." Charlie shrugs her shoulders slightly. "It's difficult and expensive, I burn through most drugs quickly so it's why I have to take this cocktail, and deal with all the side effects. But it allows me to hold a steady job, more or less. It's not glamorous but I get to survive, my parents made me come down after my grandfather died, they were afraid that I was going to turn into a hermit or something."

Santana takes it in and reaches for one of the pill bottles, reading the label. "Ketamine? You're taking horse tranquilizers like candy?"

Charlie shrugs, "It works. Most of the time."

"Most of the time?"

"When I start getting emotionally worked up—I begin to burn through the drugs quicker. Being around you—" Charlie inhales deeply and closes her eyes, "Not exactly _helpful_." She could feel her wolf rousing, trying to shake off the drugs, it was _manageable _at least for right now. She had doubled the dose for this very reason. Her wolf craved Santana and it _hurt_ far more than she was willing to admit.

Santana crosses her arms slightly, "That's not _fair_, you're not being fair about this whole thing. You never gave me a _chance_. You never gave us a chance. You couldn't even say goodbye—"

"You said no, and you have every right to. You're _human_, hell even if you were a wolf—you can always say _no_. I'm more than my base desires, I am _human. _I understand what no means." Charlie explains. "We couldn't _just_ be friends. It wouldn't have been pretty if I had seen you with other people. My wolf is _possessive_, and those emotions were already starting to bleed into my _human_ side. I couldn't be _near _you; my father was right. You were young, you were human and you simply didn't _understand_. I didn't understand. I learned." Charlie shrugged and moved back so she could lean against the wall.

"You could have sat down and explained to me—" Santana frowns trying to find the right words to say.

"You were a sixteen-year-old girl who was in love for the first time. If I had told you if it didn't work out that I would need to go to Alaska. A sixteen-year-old girl who has slight abandonment issues—" Charlie trailed off and closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. "You would have forced yourself to stay with me."

"I'm studying to be a vet Charlie, I'm one of the few humans who has been allowed to study about Therianthropes— I know all about mating, I read everything that I could get my hands on. I understand—"

"You don't. Reading about it, is different from living it—experiencing it. It's like describing a sunset to someone who is blind. I can't explain it, books can't explain it because it's something so deeply personal, so deeply fulfilling, to know that you have a partner? That there is someone who loves you unconditionally?" Charlie exhales slowly. She was getting worked up again. It was a good thing it took time for her medication to set in. "Why are you here Santana?"

She had demanded to come, to follow Charlie and she didn't quite know why. What she did know was that she was _furious_, she was hurt and she was tired, "You're right I _can't _experience it, I can't experience shifting, I don't know what it's like to have a mate. But what I _do _know and you can't explain to me is why even after all this time I still feel _comfortable_ around you. I should _hate _you. But I don't, and I've been with other people. I've had one night stands but nothing felt _right_, being with you is the only thing that felt right and I have no idea why. You're a coward, you're an asshole and you abandoned me."

"I left to keep _you_ safe," Charlie snaps back, her skin was beginning to itch. "I needed to get myself _under_ control, and I can't even manage that. I'm another fight away from being labelled feral and that means someone will eventually have to put me down. I was a _danger_ Santana, I am a danger to you, and right now you need to go."

"So, you can run away back to Alaska?" Santana accuses shaking her head. "Look, your father did help me get into the specialized veterinary school and for that I'm eternally grateful, but your wolf was never a _danger _to me—"

"Do you really think I would have been okay to see you with other people? To _smell _them on you? To watch them knowing that you had been with them, my wolf—_I _wouldn't be able to stand it Santana. I couldn't be your friend, I'm a wolf we are possessive in nature, but I am human and I know that I can't possess you. Do you know how—_painful_ not being in balance is? I am constantly in conflict with myself, you have no idea what it's like. Do you have any idea how tiring it is?"

Santana was about to say something when Charlie's eyes flashed, even though the room was dark, she could see the transformation beginning to take place. The last time she had watched anyone shift it hadn't been this prolonged, Brittany said it _didn't _really hurt. But Charlie was shaking. "I'm not afraid of you," Santana says finally. "I mean sure you're a wolf, but I was never in any danger from _you_, or your wolf. So maybe it's time you stop _fighting_ yourself and just let it go."

"I _can't_," Charlie insists trying to calm her beating heart. But it was too much, and she looks at Santana. "Please _leave_."

"Fuzzbutt isn't going to hurt me—"

"I can't _promise _that, I haven't been in control of my wolf for years Santana. We are not one, we haven't been one in a long time—I don't want to trap you with me. I don't want to hurt you so _please_." Her voice cracks breaking into a rougher sound as she shudders once, her muscles and bones were starting to snap into place.

But Santana merely shakes her head, she wasn't going anywhere. She would be lying if she said that she wasn't _worried_ but she had already made up her mind that she wasn't going to leave no matter the consequences. "I trust you."

Charlie moves as if to get up, but the action has an unintended effect of dropping her to her knees as her body convulses once more. She had hoped that she could get herself to the bathroom to lock herself in, if Santana was going to be _unreasonable_, but she had left it far too late. Her wolf was coming and there was nothing she could do about it.

Santana swallowed, she was being stupid, she knew it but she'd _seen Charlie_ as a wolf before, she'd also seen Charlie transform and knowing what she knew now? Which really wasn't _that _much, in the grand scheme of things. She knew she could handle herself as long as she made no sudden moves or loud noises. She bit her lip as Charlie's clothes tore as the fur began to grow, had she always been that furry? If anything, it seemed her coat was longer. She really was a bundle of fuzz now as her tail appeared. The sound of bones breaking and her tendons reshaping Charlie's body filled the room filled with her grunts of pain. It lasted what felt like an eternity instead of the twenty minutes that it took but finally Charlie's wolf appeared, looking positively haggard. Even from where she sat she could see the chunks of fur missing. She doesn't say anything instead staying perfectly still watching Charlie for a moment who seems to stare at her. "Hey Fuzzbutt," Santana says softly. "Remember me?" She slowly extends her hand out for Charlie to sniff.

This was going well but she immediately cringes when Fuzzbutt lunges at her, she should have taken Charlie's advice and run for the hills instead of doing whatever _this _was. She opens her eyes, when Charlie's tail smacks her in the face causing her to sneeze. "Jerk," Santana mumbles rubbing her nose as she turns to look at Fuzzbutt reaching once again to run her fingers through Charlie's thick fur. "I missed you," she whispers as Fuzzbutt flops onto the bed and curls up after a second. She turns to get a better look at Charlie and reaches to scratch behind Charlie's ears only for Charlie to snap at her and let out a weak growl.

It's enough to cause Santana to pause for a moment before looking at the pill bottles on the table, Charlie had taken a large dose of ketamine, it was quite possible her wolf was completely out of it, as they battled for dominance. "I told you I'm not leaving you, I still need to have words with your other half." Santana informs Fuzzbutt who snorts at this before rolling over ignoring her.

Santana smiles at this, and Charlie had been worried.


	30. Chapter 30

It's the feeling of something furry smacking her in the face, that causes Santana to jolt awake. For a brief moment, unsure of where she was, as she tried to remember the events of last night. She glances around and frowns when she spots Charlie in her wolf form, sniffing around the bed, and she can't help but reach out and run her fingers along Charlie's back causing the wolf to turn to her for a moment. "Hey, there Fuzzbutt, I missed you."

The wolf studies Santana for a moment before walking over to the fridge and sitting in front of it and shooting her an impatient look.

Santana blinks and stares at Fuzzbutt for a moment who lets out a small bark of sorts, and Santana rolls her eyes before getting up to see what Charlie had stored in her fridge. She's not surprised to see some meat that's in a state of being defrosted and some eggs and strips of bacon. She glances around for a skillet to make herself some breakfast before tossing Charlie a raw strip of bacon. She's not surprised when Charlie moves quickly and begins to eat it quickly. Somethings _didn't _change.

Immediately she sets about making herself a breakfast, turning to glance at Fuzzbutt who was simply lying there staring at her. "I'm going to need to talk to your other half," Santana points out, feeling a bit silly talking to a wolf. She's met with a low growl causing her to sigh. "Yeah, I know you two aren't on the same page, and you don't want to let her out. But I need to talk to her about everything. I need to understand why she ran away, why she abandoned me." Santana focuses on the eggs for a moment only to feel something cold pressing against her leg and she glances down to see Fuzzbutt nuzzling her gently. "She said she was afraid that you were going to hurt me but you aren't _hurting me_." Santana scratches behind Fuzzbutt's ears and smiles as she opens a cupboard and finds some plastic plates. She rolls her eyes and plates the egg before she starts making some bacon. She sighs and looks at Fuzzbutt for a moment, Charlie could probably hear her, at least that's what she assumed. "I know I don't understand what mating is to your species, all I know is that I loved you, I was _in _love with you. I know that I missed you every day and I called every single day for months hoping that you would pick up. It feels _silly_ now, I feel stupid for spending so much time focusing on you. Thinking back on it I depended on you a lot, I was lonely and it was a new city and I just—I needed a friend. You were my best friend, we'd watch Doctor Who together, we'd go to the comic store together. I mean I was such a nerd back then but I had you and I didn't care if I was popular or anything because you made me feel like your entire world. I mean looking back on it probably wasn't the healthiest relationship, but. It was _our _relationship."

Santana turns to look at Fuzzbutt only to spot that she was going straight for the food that she had laid out for herself. "_Hey_." Fuzzbutt pauses and looks at her and Santana can swear Charlie's laughing on the inside. "My food." Fuzzbutt stares at her before deciding to promptly ignore her and go for the eggs causing Santana to swat her gently. "I'm making you bacon, so sit and be patient or better yet let me talk to your other half."

The wolf growls at this but finally sits on the ground and waits patiently.

Santana sighed, she really did need to talk to Charlie, she needed to have this conversation with someone who could speak back, but perhaps it would be best to feed the wolf and then flush the drugs down the toilet or at least promise that she'd make Charlie stop taking them. "You know _communication _is the best way to fix a broken relationship. I mean our relationship isn't a relationship anymore but you and your wolf are kind of stuck together forever. So maybe you need to I don't know talk it out on the full moon or whatever and listen to each other or whatever."

Fuzzbutt snorted at this before curling up on the ground near her feet.

"I'm serious, I'm not a therapist and I sort of think dog psychologists are full of shit, but I mean you can actually have like an internal dialogue of sorts, and she thinks you're out of control and you think she's poisoning you and weakening you on purpose. I mean _come on_. Just talk to each other, she'll stop using the drugs and you can stop exerting your influence when she really doesn't need you too. I mean this isn't rocket science." Santana continues finishing up with the bacon and taking two strips for herself while plating the rest for Charlie who perks up and follows her.

She sets the plate down for Charlie who immediately lunges at it and begins to eat it messily before she takes a seat on the bed nibbles at her food, just taking it all in. She should be bothered at how easily she had gotten ensnared into Charlie's world again but she wasn't. She was just happy that her friend was back even if her friend was being stubborn and refusing to transform back into her human form. "I was the happiest when I was with you and maybe, no one else _felt _right," Santana admits. "So maybe I'm not an animal person and I don't _want _to be, but I think what we have—what we _had_, transcends all of that."

Santana looks up to see Fuzzbutt staring at her and she can't help but smile, maybe Charlie agreed with that and they could at least start from there. Nothing would and could take back all the damage that being separated had done but there was _something_ there between them she could feel it. Though the smile fades slightly when Fuzzbutt tried to get at her food. "_Seriously_, we're having a moment and all you can think of is _food_?" She gently shoves Fuzzbutt away only to have her pounce on her knocking the plate from her hand and onto the bed.

Santana stares at the wolf that's practically crushing her under it's weight and she grunts about to push Charlie off when she's rewarded with a large lick to her face and the wolf pressing its cold nose against her and sniffing. "Alright, alright, I know I smell like bacon but _get_ off, you're heavy and _naked." _The wolf snorted at this but hopped off and quickly munched on the eggs that Santana had made before going after the bacon and flopping back onto the bed and yawning. Santana groaned and got up only for Fuzzbutt to roll onto her back and bark at her. "You're kidding, right?" Santana questions crossing her arms. "I need to talk to your other half, I don't have time to rub your—" Santana rolled her eyes when the wolf barked at her again. "No, I need your other half and then the next time you're in you're like this I promise I'll rub your belly for like five minutes." Santana sighs when the wolf barks again. "Okay for ten minutes."

The wolf huffed at this but finally rolled over and hopped off the bed, and stretched for a moment before heading to the bathroom and managed to close the door.

Santana shook her head, but waited for Charlie to appear. She could hear the snapping and grunting from inside the bathroom and she couldn't help but snicker. "Next time, I'll just wait outside Charlie." She's rewarded with a sort of _half _bark, half groan of pain, and the smile faded. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy," Charlie grunted. "Can you put some clothes outside the door?"

Santana glances around the room noting the pop-up hamper in the corner, the clothes inside were folded and she grabs some underwear, before she spots a shirt and piles it in front of the bathroom door. "You do realize that it's nothing I haven't seen before, right?"

The door to the bathroom opened and an arm appeared patting the ground before finally finding the clothes and dragging them back in. "Do you really want to have this _conversation_, with one of us naked?" Charlie asks.

Santana smiled before glancing down at herself and spotting all the fur on her black dress. "Well, it can't be anymore awkward than last night. Also, I need to change into something that isn't covered in a layer of fur."

"Okay, just go into the small closet, there should be something you can wear," Charlie throws out as there's a bang and a string of curse words.

Santana strips out of the dress and heads to the closet, and opens the closet grabbing the first baggy shirt she sees and a pair of shorts and sliding them on just as the door to the bathroom swung open and Charlie appears, and even from here she can see she looks better than she did last night. "No more drugs."

Charlie frowned as she flicked her eyes to the pill bottles, "You don't—"

"I don't care, you're killing yourself. I should have stopped you last night but I didn't know it was this bad. Your wolf is _fine_. I'm fine, see?"

"You don't understand, my wolf wasn't _supposed_ to come out. Not like that, not when I had very little control, it's already happened once, the only good thing was that I wasn't in front of humans. I haven't been in balance for a _long _time Santana."

"Yeah, well drugs aren't the answer," Santana insists. "Also, being alone like you're some sort of lone wolf, isn't the answer either. You're a _pack _animal. You're not meant to be alone. I mean it's just like training any dog—"

"Not a dog."

"They need plenty of exercise and interaction and you've been _starving_ your wolf of that," Santana continues as if Charlie hadn't spoken.

"What, half a year of vet school and you're an expert?" Charlie frowns.

Santana flushed, but she wasn't going to let Charlie simply dismiss her concerns. "You don't need to be a vet to know what you're doing to yourself is incredibly unhealthy. So, we need to make sure you're _healthy_."

"You sound like my father."

"Well your father is a smart man and you should maybe listen to him more instead of arguing with him over every little thing. He only wants what's best for you." When Charlie frowns at this and raises an inquisitive brow, Santana shuffles a bit. "Your father sort of helped me get into the program. He acknowledged that I knew about the community, and we talked about you know—animal people and _you_."

"Of course, you did, let me guess he told you what a fuck up I was—" Charlie begins starting to grow agitated.

Santana winces slightly, "No, just that you needed to find a mate and get your life back on track. I mean I think your dad loves you in his own totally grouchy and unreasonable way." When Charlie doesn't respond she sighs and reaches to nudge Charlie's shoulder to grab her attention. "You're not a fuck up, you're just a wolf who for some reason insists on being alone and doing everything alone."

"I don't want to be alone, I didn't want to go to Alaska either, but I was afraid I'd turn into some creepy stalker person if I stayed. I don't know how to just be your _friend_."

Santana was quiet for a moment, this was a start, they could start from there and work there way up. She wasn't quite sure if Charlie remembered what she had said when she was in her wolf form but she wasn't going to push it right now. "Well, you can start by putting on some pants and we can go to Denny's or somewhere and you can buy me breakfast. Since you know, your wolf ate it all."

Charlie grunts at that, "_Fine_, but let me just—" Charlie reaches for the pills.

"No, Charlie, just _no_," Santana says moving to swat her hand. Charlie was going to get over this, whatever it was and things would be okay. She hoped that they would be okay.


	31. Chapter 31

Santana watched as Charlie swiped some of the bacon off her plate, she wasn't even being subtle about it and frowns slightly. Things were right back to being awkward. They hadn't really said anything since they had left Charlie's small apartment. Perhaps whatever she had thought they had wasn't accurate in the slightest. She glances up at Charlie who was busy chewing on the bacon she had pilfered and sighed.

"Do you still read comics?"

The question catches her by surprise and she looks up again to see Charlie studying her carefully. It was a conversation starter, and this wasn't a date. This was two friends talking to each other after over breakfast and coffee. "I don't have the time—or the money," Santana admits slowly. "I mean as much as I'd love to sit down and read some comic books, I also need to eat. Do you still read comics?"

"Uh—no, not really. You were the ones that always explained to me what was going on, I tried a few times on my own, but I didn't end up understanding what was going on," Charlie shrugged and continued to chew on her bacon.

"So, what you're saying is that you totally only liked reading comics and watching all those geeky movies because you were dating me and wanted in my pants?" Santana questions narrowing her eyes slightly, as she tried to keep the amusement off her features as Charlie choked on the bacon.

"No! I liked Doctor Who, I've kept up with it—well whenever the new season comes to Netflix," Charlie says grabbing her water and downing as much as she could, and slamming her fist against her chest. "It wasn't just to get in your pants. Also—you were the one that started sending me sexy pictures, I was trying to be chivalrous and not push you."

"No one asked you to be chivalrous," Santana points out.

"You had just turned sixteen, what did you want me to do? Swipe your virginity, the moment you turned sixteen? It's probably for the best that we didn't have sex, all things considered." Charlie pointed out.

"And you've never—"

"I'm not sure I physically can, I've never actually tried though. Maybe in the right situation with the right amount of alcohol in my veins it could happen, but I don't drink."

"You just take horse tranquilizers," Santana reminds her and shakes her head. She wasn't trying to guilt Charlie. "Which you will stop. How did you even get those? They're a controlled substance."

"You're a vet, you tell me," Charlie responds but when Santana looks surprised she can only shake her head. "I don't go see regular doctors, I need to see someone who is versed in our biology. A silver bullet can put me down, even if it grazes me. It's a slow and agonizing death, unless I get to a vet quickly. They're our doctors. I'm surprised that they haven't given you some huge speech about it."

Santana made a face, "They treat me differently, because I'm the only human."

"It's not as if some humans don't know about us, the government is certainly aware that we exist. Our kind has always been special ops teams throughout various wars. We're durable. Far more durable than a regular human." Charlie mused. "If they treat you different, then force them to acknowledge you. Just be better than they are. You also need to cut them some slack, for the most part all we've been told for years is that humans are dangerous. That they're going to kill us all or something. So, we have to hide." Charlie points out causing Santana to pause.

"I didn't think about it like that."

"That cat—"

"Brittany."

"Right, the cat, she's nice to you?"

"Yeah—"

"Surprising because cats are always plotting ways to kill you," Charlie muttered under her breath.

Santana blinked twice, "Holy shit, you're a speciesist. How did I not see it before?"

"What?"

"You're a speciesist," Santana repeats. "You think you're better than everyone else because you're a wolf."

"I am better than everyone else because I'm a wolf," Charlie responds dully.

Santana rolls her eyes, "What if I told you that I was a cat person?" She watches as Charlie makes a face at her. "I mean come on Charlie there are plenty of dog and cat videos on the internet, they're adorable—" Santana suddenly grins. "We should make a viral video."

"No."

"Come on! It'll be adorable!"

"No."

Santana sighs, she'd just have to bother Quinn and Brittany about it then. "I still think it'd be adorable, you could act out a scene from Doctor Who or—we could dress you up—"

"No. I have fur, adding another layer of clothing makes me unbearably hot. The only reason I let you get away with putting a fez on my head and a bow tie collar was because it made you happy, and you gave me treats. Otherwise I would have chewed that thing up," Charlie grumbles, making a play for the rest of Santana's bacon.

"It's the jalapeno bacon," Santana warns watching as Charlie pauses and pulls her hand back. "Baby," Santana teases after a moment and once again the awkward silence was back. She inhales slowly, "Can we go back to the way things were?"

Charlie taps her fingers along the table in a steady beat, a nervous habit she'd developed. "Santana, I can't control my wolf, I can barely keep a job down. We're not in high school anymore when things looked bright and things were looking up. You're going to be a vet and you already said that you want to remain human. We can't mate if you're human."

"Says who? I've read everything there is to know about mates, every textbook, every secret journal article and I haven't found anything that says that we can't mate, maybe it's not a proper bond. But—it's something right?"

Charlie studied Santana for a moment, she had no idea what she was asking. If Santana didn't turn, if she never did then she'd be alone forever. Her wolf wouldn't have a proper mate, she'd never have kids. She wasn't even sure if she wanted kids or Santana wanted kids but they'd never be able to have them. But for right now she wouldn't be alone. "It's a start," Charlie agrees after a moment.


	32. Chapter 32

"I think that means that we're _dating _now," Santana admits to Brittany who was staring at her with some shock on her features. She shifts uncomfortably, she had just spent forty minutes explaining her relationship to her best friend and she wasn't any closer to fully understanding anything. "Look, Charlie's _wolf_ really only wants one thing from me and that's tummy scratches, when she's finished eating. Well that and my absolute attention. She likes to sit on me as well. Like it's perfectly safe."

"You're mates with a _wolf_?" Brittany asks in awe before frowning. "That _doesn't _happen." There was not one documented case of a wolf mating with a human, there were other cases of other types of animal people falling for humans but never wolves.

Santana groaned, she should have known that Brittany would focus on that, everyone seemed to focus on the oddity of the relationship. "I know, I've been told by _everyone_. But I can't help it, I feel something. Maybe it's the pheromones, but I feel safe with her, I feel at _home _with her and I missed her something fierce. I don't know maybe at the time we _both_ needed each other, and it just happened. I took care of her, well my father did but I _took_ care of her. I walked her, I played with her, I know she could have run anytime she wanted and gone back home but she _stayed. _I don't know why _she's _different, I don't know _why _I'm different, but we're different."

"So, when are you going to do the change?" Brittany asks after a moment, the surprise passing. Whatever they had clearly wasn't complete, which meant that Santana would make the change and that would be the end of their friendship. "We won't be able to be roommates anymore. We probably won't be friends anymore."

"We're always going to be friends Britt. Nothing is going to change that. I'm also _not _going to go through the change. I like being human and I am aware of how dangerous it is. We talked about it." When Brittany shoots her an incredulous look she immediately shifts uncomfortably and swallows. "What? We did and she agreed."

"Okay," Brittany nods and pushes a smile onto her lips and goes back to her anatomy textbook.

"Say it," Santana insists.

Brittany sighs and looks at Santana, fiddling with her highlighter. "Did you? Talk about it."

Santana nods and looks up from her own textbook, "We did. I mean I told her I didn't want to be a wolf and she was okay with trying our relationship again," Santana insists. "I want to be _human_ and she understands and respects that."

"Are you sure?" Brittany asks, biting her lip. "Because according to you she ran away to Alaska because you basically refused to be her mate. Which was the right decision, you were _sixteen_. But that type of rejection—I'm honestly surprised that her wolf hasn't become possessive. It's _probably_ a good thing you haven't had sex in months and she can't smell it anymore."

Santana flushes, "We weren't together—"

"She's a wolf, you're apparently her mate she'll be territorial and pee on everything. She might also tear someone's throat out. Wolves are territorial, and they're special. Out of all the animal people they are the only ones that can turn humans into animal people. I mean it's difficult and no one quite understands it, or why it's a thing. But from what I understand their mate bonds are _different_ than mine, more intense more personal something about pack magic or something unscientific. Not like they are open about sharing their secrets or studying their abilities," Brittany hummed for a moment before smiling. "Since she's your mate and you're my best friend—"

"You can ask her yourself," Santana responds chewing on the inside of her cheek. Brittany had brought up some good points. "She's coming over for dinner after she's done with work, which is why we need to head to fucking Aldi or some shit, to stock up." When Brittany wrinkles her nose in displeasure, Santana sighs. "I'll make sure she doesn't get into your things Brittany, and that she'll be nice. I just—_she's my girlfriend_—I mean I think she is. You're my best friend and I need you two to get along."

Brittany nodded at that, it would be weird at first but she was nice to everyone, but there was something in the way that Santana made the suggestion that makes her question her motives. "Santana, this isn't because you want to make some extra cash by having some viral cat and dog videos, is it?" Brittany asked. "Because we've talked about this, the answer is no."

"No. Of course not." Santana says defensively raising her hands up in protest. "But I mean if you want to dress up as the fourth doctor, and Charlie wants to dress up as the eleventh and you know run around with toy sonic screwdrivers in your mouth and I _happen _to have my phone on me—"

"_Santana_."

"I won't post it on the _internet_, it'll just be for me. I swear." Santana grins when Brittany rolls her eyes, she hadn't said no which meant that she just needed to get the costumes for them later.

Brittany rolled her eyes, Santana was _weird_, she didn't want to dress up like the Doctor, she wanted to be a unicorn or a princess but Santana only dressed her up in geeky clothes. "I still think it's dangerous, and she better not transform here. I really don't need to feel the urge to start marking my territory again."

~O~

Charlie ran a hand through her hair and attempted to pat it down, she could practically feel her wolf just scratching underneath the surface to get out. Maybe it was the smell of a cat person nearby, or maybe her inner wolf just wanted to collect on the stomach scratches that Santana had promised her.

Taking a deep breath, she finally moves getting ready to knock on the door only to have it swing open at the last possible second leading her to stare at the taller blonde in front of her, she had been with Santana at the party that they had left the other night. "Uh—"

"Santana's currently on amazon looking for clothes for us to wear for her amusement." Brittany informed Charlie bluntly.

Charlie's lip twitched, "So you're saying I should leave and never return?"

Brittany shook her head, "I'm saying that we don't transform for her, she can't get us to wear animal clothes when we're in this form. If we run she'll just find us and then make us wear the silly outfits." Brittany explains and sticks out her hand for Charlie. "I'm Brittany by the way, Santana's best friend."

The sensation of her wolf just underneath the surface came back, "Charlie, her—"

"Mate. I know," Brittany said flashing her a smile. She could feel the change in the air and she needed to defuse the situation quickly. The words seem to have the positive effect.

"Yeah, I'm her mate," Charlie said after a moment, the confidence returning slightly. It was strange having someone outside of her family acknowledge it. "Uh where is she?"

"Kitchen, she's making dinner."

"I brought a pie from work," Charlie informed her holding it up.

Brittany nods, "I'm sure she'll love that, now go say hello to your mate before she decides to put us in alien outfits and then chase after us as the doctor."

Charlie snorted, it did sound like something Santana would do. She shifts uncomfortable for a moment before stepping inside and looking around the small two-bedroom apartment. "It's a nice place you've got here," she says after a moment remembering her manners.

Brittany shakes her head, it was small and cramped and it could certainly do with a fresh coat of paint, "So, what do you do?" She asked as they headed to the kitchen.

"Oh, I work at a restaurant, dad's trying to get me back into school but until my shifting stabilizes, I can't." Charlie shrugs. She glances up when they enter the kitchen and waves at Santana, "I brought pie."

Santana grinned, "Good, the chicken is almost done, well the chicken for you is almost done, how do you even afford to feed yourself."

"Sale meat, just as good as fresh meat, or good enough. And if it smells off, I go home and my mother feeds me, and packs me meals for the next few days. Also, there are farms nearby that cater to our needs, cheap fresh meat if you're willing to make the drive."

Brittany blinked, "Really?"

"It's a two-hour drive," Charlie points out. "But they have everything—"

"Fish?"

"Well no, but fresh chicken, beef, pork, lamb, rabbit, venison—basically everything else," Charlie shifts a bit slightly uncomfortable. "I can take you next time I'm heading down there."

Santana rolled her eyes at Brittany's excitement, watching as her friend basically latched onto Charlie. She had been worried that they wouldn't get along and yet here they were. "Please tell me that they have _fresh_ veggies?" She's met with a strange look from both Charlie and Brittany and she sighs. "What about fruit?"

"I don't know, I only go there to buy meat, I mean _probably_, they do sell to normal people as well, they just pay more. You'll probably get a discount if you mention you're vet students they need more of them on the farm," Charlie points out putting the pie down and moving towards the stove.

"Santana, we've _got to go_. We'll make a day out of it," Brittany says with a huge grin on her face. It would be so worth it. "Come on Charlie, we're going to be _best _friends."

Charlie blinked for a moment before nodding, that did sound nice.


	33. Chapter 33

Santana scowled as she ran her hands over Fuzzbutt's stomach scratching it gently. It had been _way _longer than ten minutes that she had promised, but every single attempt she made to quit would lead to Fuzzbutt barking and growling at her. It was _infuriating. _"I was pretty sure I was supposed to be your mate, not the person that scratches your stomach because you're lazy," Santana reminded the wolf, as she finally begins to slow down, her arms exhausted.

At least Fuzzbutt had finally decided she had enough, and rolls over. "Thank you, my arms were getting tired and—_oh _gross! Ew! Stop it!" Santana shouts as she tries to push the wolf away as it pins her down and begins to lick her face messily. "Gross, your breath smells like _death_! What were you eating?" With a bit of force, she finally manages to push Fuzzbutt off her and scramble backwards wiping her face with her sleeve. She had _homework_ to do. "You really need to work on your breath," Santana says and rolls her eyes when the wolf stretches out. "I'm going to start working on my—" She pauses for a moment, when the sound of bones and ligaments snapping and tearing before shifting into place fills the room and she turns to look at Fuzzbutt who was in the process of transforming back into Charlie.

It had been years since she'd seen Charlie's transformation, she'd seen Brittany transform once or twice, but while Brittany's looked painless and almost _magical_, Charlie's looked painful and it took longer. She watches as the fur recedes and Charlie finally slumps onto the bed, exhausted from the transformation. "Charlie," She begins.

"What?" Charlie asks after a moment.

"Your breath smells like death, so maybe you should go brush your teeth," Santana informs her. "That is if you still want to kiss me."

Charlie shifts on the bed a bit before remembering that she was still naked. She narrows her eyes slightly, and turns to look at Santana. "You just wanted to see me naked, didn't you?"

"I've seen you naked before remember? Your breath on the other hand can kill someone," Santana insists trying not to smile as Charlie looked around the room to wrap around her waist. Things were going _relatively_ well between them, it was still stilted at times and things weren't back to the way they were before but she had _missed _Charlie_,_ more than anything. Even if things felt _slightly_ off they still felt nice better than they had with any previous lover.

"Can you at least pass me a towel?"

"No. I have a midterm coming up, I need to study," Santana reminds her, wiggling her anatomy book at Charlie.

Charlie sighs and grabs the pillow to protect her modesty and slides off her bed and shuffles behind Santana who seemed to be very into her textbook. "Shouldn't you go to a library or a—" Santana hands shoots out and grabs the small pillow yanking it from Charlie's grasp causing it to fall away. "_Santana_!"

"What? My hand slipped, I did tell you it was tired from all the pet rubs you made me do?" Santana insists as Charlie scampers off to the bathroom and slams the door. Santana tries not to laugh but she can't help the small giggle. "I'm sorry, I mean you made it so easy."

Charlie scowled as she popped her head out of the bathroom as she put on a pair of loose shorts and a ripped shirt. "No, I didn't, don't you have an exam to worry about?"

"I do, but I'm pretty good with my anatomy—my dad taught me like _everything _already, so this is just an easy exam for me. But I mean if you want to help with it—and I don't mean by quizzing me."

"No."

"No?" Santana blinks she hadn't been that underhanded with what she wanted. "We've been dating for a few weeks now and it's not as if we don't know each other. I mean I thought the reason you invited me over was so that we could finally, you know, _fuck_."

Charlie shrugs, "I invited you because I didn't have work today and things have been—stable as of late. Sex—well I don't know what that's going to do to me—to us. I don't think my wolf thinks of you that way to be honest."

Santana blinked and turned to look at Charlie, "What do you mean your wolf isn't attracted to me?"

"Well, you're _not _a wolf—I mean it's not that I'm unaware that there are some of our kind who like to play with _that _taboo but—" Charlie scratches her cheek. "We can't have kids, you don't go into heat, my wolf more or less sees you as the person who gives her food and gives the best scratches." Charlie says with a frown. "I thought you understood this."

"I thought you said we were mates," Santana frowned.

"We are. I can't actually mate with anyone else, I've tried like it doesn't work. But that's on the human end. The wolf end expected you to do the transformation, there's a bond on the wolf end as well but—I don't know how to explain it Santana. You're not a wolf, I think it would be like for you finding a horse or a bear or some other animal sexually attractive."

Santana stood still, Brittany had accused her of _not _listening. She was getting a sinking feeling that _all of this_, "Hold on, go back—we can't have kids?"

"You're _human_ Santana, we can always adopt, but I can't get you pregnant or anything. It's _not _impossible," Charlie sighed. "I thought you _knew _this already."

"I didn't know this, you didn't _explain _it to me," Santana insists immediately. "I didn't know that there would be _consequences_—"

"I'm choosing to be your girlfriend Santana, I'm choosing to live my life as mostly _human_ with the odd day where I turn furry. To be with you. I'll never have children, I'll never have a pack, I'll just have _you_. The alternative is not having you and that sucks more than being alone does." Charlie interrupts hoping that it ends the conversation. She _didn't _want to think about it. She hadn't even told her parents what her decision was.

"But that's not what I want for you," Santana points out. "I want you to have a family and to have kids—I want to have kids, not now but eventually. I mean yeah adoption is always something we could do but, you won't be _happy_."

"I'm happy with you," Charlie responds.

"No, you're _content_. There's a difference."

"Not a big one. The change could _kill you_, and it's not easy being one of us. If you want to be human then you should _be _that. Human. We can make it work, I mean we can go running in the woods together even if you are human. There are plenty of things that we can do together. I've been a lone wolf since my grandfather died and that was years ago. None of this is going to change anything, I just have you."

"Except you don't because you won't have sex with me," Santana argues.

"I do want to have sex with you, did you miss the fucking hardon that nearly smacked you in your face like twenty seconds ago?" Charlie rolls her eyes. "I'm just getting _better_, I'm off the drugs and everything but I'm still worried about _everything_, going feral and my life choices and going back to school and you want me to add having sex to all that confusion? I don't know what that's going to do to me and I'm finally reaching some sort of balance right now."

"Oh," Santana flushes, feeling a bit foolish. There was a lot of upheaval in her life at this moment and she was still trying to come to terms with her _wolf_. She felt like she was being insensitive, "I should—"

"Stay for dinner," Charlie says after a moment. "And study, I need to look at these stupid university brochures."

Santana pauses for a moment and chews on the inside of her lip. She sighs, "Alright, but no more distractions alright. That includes you getting naked or transforming into Fuzzbutt so I can scratch your belly because you're bored. Especially the getting naked part. It's very distracting."

Charlie tilts her head before smiling at Santana. "Noted. Study for your anatomy exam. If you ace it, I guess you can practice what you learned on me."

Santana pauses for a moment narrowing her eyes, Charlie was teasing her. "See if I ever make you bacon jerky again," she mutters. She's rewarded with a kiss on the cheek from Charlie, who has minty fresh breath now. "I'm _serious_," she insists as Charlie kisses her deeply. It takes a moment before she gently pushes Charlie away. "That won't work on me!"

Charlie laughs and takes a seat beside her and pulls her close. "Well worth a try," she says with a shrug.


	34. Chapter 34

"What are you doing?" Brittany asks, watching as Santana jumps up from where she was seated and accidentally knocks the textbook she'd been reading onto the ground.

"_Fuck_, Brittany! We need to put a bell on you," Santana said as she attempted to kick the textbook under the table. "I've told you about sneaking up on me!"

Brittany tilts her head so she can read what's on the spine of the textbook, noting that it was from the library. "Lycanthropy?"

Santana flushes and sighs, there was no point in hiding anything from Brittany, or really _any _other therianthrope. "I'm reading up on it, I was going to ask Doctor Beiste about it later. Charlie doesn't exactly have all the answers about what the change entails. I don't want to be forced to turn every full moon."

"You're not _bound_ by the full moon, well that's not completely true, pre-adolescent lycanthropes are bound by the lunar cycle, adults are not. It's a protective measure, for growing lycanthropes. The change is apparently brutal on their bodies, so it _makes _sense, that it only happens during certain periods of the month until their body can handle the shift. I've heard stories that it also allows them to learn to control their animal side better," Brittany picked up the book and frowned slightly at Santana. "I thought you said that Charlie said it was okay for you two to be together, without you going through the change."

Santana grimaces and sighs, she felt ridiculous about this whole endeavor. Like one of those girls who was trying desperately to impress their significant other for all the wrong reasons. She was a human, she _liked _being human. She didn't want to change for Charlie, and Charlie hadn't asked her too. "Charlie's wolf isn't attracted to me as anything more than the person who gives her food and belly rubs."

Brittany glanced down at the book for a moment and then back at Santana, and crinkled her nose slightly. "Santana, do you want a _wolf _to fuck you?"

"What? _No_! I just thought we were mates. Which implies at least partially that her wolf should be attracted to me."

"Are you sexually attracted to wolves?" Brittany asks.

"Britt!"

"It's a fair question, why does it bother you? Oh, is Fuzzbutt sniffing other dog's butts?"

"What? _No_! Charlie—Fuzzbutt doesn't _do _that."

Brittany studied the book, "You know that being turned into a wolf, is lethal in about eighty-percent of the time? Charlie probably doesn't want to accidentally kill you."

"I've been thinking about that, not for me but for people in _general_. To do the change it's more than just a bite or a scratch, isn't it? You have to be close to death, your immune system has to be depleted to let the venom work—but we have drugs that can do that can't we? Deplete the immune system? So, all it would take is a bite or two instead of you know tearing apart someone when they're close to death?"

Brittany hesitated for a moment, it could possibly work but the last thing anyone in their community wanted was for the wolves to get a numbers advantage. "It _might_ work," she says finally. "Maybe."

"But?" Santana prompts.

"Well, you'd need to find someone to test it on, and if it _does _work, think about it for a moment Santana. The wolf's numbers would _explode_."

"I don't think so they take their privacy and territory pretty seriously, the more people that know about them the greater the chance that they're exposed. They aren't _stupid_, and they already have strict laws about turning humans," Santana mused. "Charlie's already got a strike against her, she's worried about being labelled feral. If we can test it out on someone—anyone then maybe there will be a way for us to be together completely."

"You're willing to do the turn?"

Santana swallows, she was unsure if that's what she wanted. "I don't know, maybe I should talk to someone that isn't Charlie. Charlie will tell me not to do it, even though I think she really wants me to do it. I just—"

"The lethal part isn't the only problem with doing the turn, those that do survive around fifty percent go insane because they can't actually take it, that's why they aren't allowed to turn humans just like that anymore. Santana it's _dangerous_, even if you could find a way to make the turn not as lethal as it normally is you still have to worry about the insanity after the fact. There's another _being _in your head, it's easy for someone like me because it's been there all of our lives. But for other people suddenly having _someone _anyone in your head talking to you having an opinion? You don't know what's real or what's not, and depending on your personality your wolf side might be more aggressive, and will be a lot harder to control." Brittany sighs, "In the end it's your choice Santana, and I think you need to talk to Charlie about it. Actually _talk_."

"She's going to tell me not to do it. I mean back when she was a teenager—she was so excited to have me do the turn and now, I think she's being to cautious and willing to settle on me, and I don't want her to settle. That's not what I want. I want her to be happy and have a pack and just be _happy_ with me."

Brittany hummed at this, "She seems happy to me, every time she's here, she seems _happy_ to be near you. Maybe you're overthinking this."

"She wants _children_."

"She's an alpha she can have children if she wants, all she needs to do is find a willing omega. I mean it might be a difficult since she's your mate but I mean if we have _figured_ out IVF, we can figure out how to give you wolf children, doing something drastic is silly Santana. I mean it's not as if there aren't animal children that need to be adopted either, stuff happens." Brittany tilts her head slightly. "You know, I never really understood how you two could be mates, I mean you're _human_, but I see it now. You wouldn't be stressing over it this much if Charlie wasn't going to be permanent."

Santana nods, "She is, I know it, I think I've always known it. You don't have the spark we had when I first laid eyes on her. Maybe our bond is _different_ than a normal mate bond, but there is _still _a bond a strong one. And I don't plan on letting her run away again. Now I just need to remind myself that I need to be patient about the sex."

"You're not having sex? _Santana_!"

Santana groans and slumps against her seat. "I _know_, but she's trying to figure out her life. I can't just jump her and have my way with her."

"She's an alpha you won't be having your way with her, in fact you'll probably be lucky if you'll be able to walk," Brittany grins. "When it does happen Santana, you've _got to _give me all the details."

Santana rolls her eyes, "I'll do nothing of the sort, and Charlie's a virgin I can't imagine she'll be _amazing_ the first time."

"Please, we're animal people we don't _have _terrible sex, it's _impossible_. You should probably get ready to have your mind blown," Brittany informs her.

Santana rolls her eyes, maybe when she was a teenager she'd take Brittany's words to heart but Charlie was a virgin. She'd probably be fine. "I'll talk to Quinn about it. Or maybe Mr. Fabray. They'll probably let me know what to do."

"Or your girlfriend, that's also a possibility."

Santana scoffs, and shakes her head. Mr. Fabray was probably the best bet. Then she'd talk to Charlie about all of it.


	35. Chapter 35

"You're staring. I can feel it." Charlie said not looking up from where she was leaning against Santana's bed.

"You can't _feel_ someone staring at you Charlie," Santana retorts but stops pretending she's not staring at her girlfriend. "I also wasn't staring, I was thinking. I had a conversation with Britt, about making the turn, and before you say _no_. It's not your decision to make, and I haven't changed my mind I want to keep being human."

Charlie flicked her eyes to Santana for a moment, "Is this about the fact that my wolf won't have sex with you?"

Santana flushes immediately, "No, I mean not really. I've thought about it—not like that Charlie, I thought about your wolf being lonely and how I couldn't _complete _you, I couldn't give you a family or any pups or anything. I mean I'm here telling you to stop being a lone wolf but knowing that you can't exactly move on from me."

"Are you trying to cushion the blow as you break up with me?"

Santana rolled her eyes at Charlie's question, "_No_. I'm not breaking up with you. We've tried that and we were _both_ miserable. I just did some reading and while I don't have any intention of becoming a wolf, I may have figured out a way to make it easier to push people through the change—it doesn't stop the insanity that's a fifty-fifty crapshoot, but maybe someone else can figure it out."

"Why are you telling me this, shouldn't you be having this conversation with Quinn and Rachel?"

"Rachel and Quinn? They're together?"

"You didn't know?"

"I haven't talked to Rachel since I graduated high-school. Our parents may be together but that doesn't mean we're sisters."

"It sort of does," Charlie points out and smiles when Santana glares at her. She holds up her hands defensively. "I think Rachel wants to make the change, or not, I'm not actually sure. That will mean actually going to a family diner and listening to how great Quinn is while I'm still stuck trying to get my life back on track."

"You haven't heard back from any of the schools yet?"

Charlie crinkled her nose and shook her head, "Hopefully I should hear back from the soon, but that doesn't mean anything Santana. I only sent them in last week, Santana. But you should probably give Quinn and Rachel the good news. You might not want to do the change but I think Rachel does."

"Really? Wouldn't that _ruin _her chances to be _someone _on Broadway or whatever?" Santana asks gritting her teeth, she hadn't known that Rachel and Quinn were actually a thing, she had known that they were close and she had known that Quinn still liked to piss Rachel off but the idea that Rachel was willing to do something like that for Quinn, it both bothered her and made her feel guilty.

"There are plenty of famous animal people Santana, I don't see how becoming a wolf person will make Rachel fail," Charlie shrugs. "She's still young and she hasn't become super famous so if they're _going_ to do it then now is probably the best time, so I guess the question is _how_. How do you plan on making it easy for her?"

"Well—" Santana began Charlie seemed interested in hearing her theory. But there was something that she needed to know first. "Do you want me to turn? I mean is that what you want for me to go through the turn and be like you? So, we can mate properly?"

"What do you mean _mate _properly?" Charlie asks sitting up. "We're mates right now."

"You know what I mean, I mean have a wolf so your wolf doesn't have to be lonely. I mean if Rachel becomes a wolf and has Quinn's kids—and you can see that—I just don't want you to resent me. I don't want you to look at me and wish I was more like Rachel I get enough of that from my dad. I mean I looked it up, it's not out of the question that you have kids Charlie, you know pups of your own. We could also adopt—"

"Santana."

"I mean according to Brittany we could probably figure out some sort of surrogacy situation—"

"Santana," Charlie interrupts again moving this time to wrap her arms around her. "Kids are a future thing, we haven't even begun to have sex yet. I don't know if I'll want kids at this point right now, I don't. I mean maybe I should be thinking like that, like the future and stuff but right now the only good thing in my life is you. I'm stuck doing odd jobs living in my crappy little apartment struggling not to accidentally let my control slip. I'm not ready to have children. I mean you're in a better position than I am. Is that something you want? Kids?"

"Not right now," Santana admits. "Or ever."

Charlie smiles and nudges Santana, "See, we're good right now, we're even better good. So, let's not compare ourselves to Rachel and Quinn. Otherwise we'll both be miserable. Let's just be us for now?" Charlie asks.

Santana nods, "So I don't need to talk to your dad about doing the change then?"

"God no, ignore him. Why would you ever go to my father? I don't even go to my father. He's an ass," Charlie grumbles and pulls Santana into a tight hug. "You can talk to me about this stuff, I know I'm not a fountain of knowledge but I do know _some _stuff."

"Like why your wolf side enjoys stomach rubs?" Santana teases.

"Who said it was just my wolf? I just thought it was weird to ask you to rub my tummy, but I mean if you're open to it—" Charlie wiggles her eyebrows at Santana who laughs.

Santana reaches for Charlie's stomach and pauses when Charlie suddenly jerks back and flushes deeply. "You're ticklish?"

Charlie clears her throat, "Sure, lets go with—" Charlie's voice goes up an octave higher as Santana slips her hands down and grips Charlie firmly. "San."

"Charlie," Santana teases. "I thought you liked it when I gave you a quick rub." She finally pulls her hand away, she could feel Charlie practically busting out of her jeans.

"Hey! You can't just—you can't just stop there. I mean—" Charlie flushed her eyes dilating, her voice breaking out into a whine.

"I have to study for anatomy."

Charlie huffed before pulling off her shirt, "Fine you can use my body for help."

Santana glanced over at Charlie, "No seriously Charlie, and I have biochemistry exam put it away."

"You're the one that touched me!"

"Put it away Charlie, and help me with my cue cards," Santana grinned holding up her color-coded cue cards. "The Krebs cycle isn't going to learn itself."

Charlie grumbles and flops back, before grabbing her shirt. "You're the worst, you know that? The worst."


	36. Chapter 36

"What are you doing? You know sniffing people is creepy, right?" Santana reminded Charlie as she pushed her girlfriend away from her. "I thought you said that you've finally reached an agreement with your wolf."

"I have," Charlie says as she leans in closely and sniffs Santana again. She jerks back when Santana thumps her nose gently and scowls at her. "You're ovulating."

"Excuse me?"

"You're ovulating, it smells really good—" Charlie dodges the pillow that Santana tries to smack her with and shoots her a crooked smile. "What?"

"Now you want to have sex with me? To get me pregnant?"

"I can't actually get you pregnant, but you're like—it's not quite pheromones, but you smell really good and I'm getting horny so—"

Santana rolled her eyes and glanced down at Charlie's crotch and shakes her head, "No."

"No?" Charlie repeats slowly.

Santana shakes her head, "I'm not going to have sex with you because you have a weird pregnancy fetish and want to have sex with me while I'm ovulating. It's weird. You're being weird and sniffing me isn't something that turns me on. Also, I'm _certain_ you don't have any condoms on you, because there is an off chance you may get me pregnant and I'm not on birth control. So, _no_."

Charlie stares and then flops backwards and groans. "If I go and get condoms—"

"No. Homework and studying, you said you'd help. Attempting to seduce me—badly, isn't helping. It's distracting now cue cards. Also, the sniffing thing. Super weird." Santana insisted pushing the cue cards into Charlie's hands. The last thing she needed was Charlie starting something she probably couldn't finish, and if she could finish it—well she simply couldn't afford to spend the entire day having sex with her girlfriend.

"I thought Brittany was supposed to be helping you out with this," Charlie grumbled as she read the card. "She's probably goofing off or having sex, isn't she?"

Santana rolled her eyes and pinched Charlie's side, "Don't be mean, you're the one that doesn't carry around condoms."

"They smell disgusting."

"I'm sure they do, you're still wearing them when we have sex." Santana informs her. "Have you heard anything back from the schools?"

"Hmm? I got an email today I didn't check it. What's the rate limiting step in the TCA cycle?" Charlie questioned reading off the cue cards, she flips it over and looks at Santana expectantly.

"Isocitrate dehydrogenase—" Santana responds reaching for Charlie's phone. She frowns when Charlie moves it away from her. "You can't tell me that and then move on. You could be getting into Ohio State with me, I mean we won't be roommates or anything but we'd be able to see each other every day. Charlie hand it over!"

"No."

"No? Are you just getting back at me for saying no to having sex with you?"

Charlie flashes Santana a smile causing her to scowl and reach for the phone knocking them both to the ground. "I'm pretty sure you said no sex and now you're on top of me. Come on Santana you need to—_mmff_!" Charlie groaned into the kiss that Santana had silenced her with. It only takes her a moment to realize that it was Santana's brilliant scheme to get her phone as she feels her girlfriend pull the phone from her hand.

"Got it," Santana smirked at Charlie who scowled at her but made no move to take the phone from her. If anything, she pauses when Charlie shivers and her eyes glow for a split second. "You okay?"

"The wolf wants to come out and play. Also, I think we're in agreeance that you're evil," Charlie said after a moment once she had calmed herself. She wasn't sure what was worse the fact that Santana had kissed her or the fact that Santana had triggered her inner wolf. Her senses were on fire at the moment and if Santana did anything else she wasn't sure if she'd be able to control herself. She exhales once and inches away from Santana.

Santana hums and grips Charlie's hand and places her thumb on the home button unlocking the phone so she can snoop. She opens Charlie's emails watching Charlie just in case and opens the email pausing only for a moment to make sure that Charlie is okay with it. She waits until she gets the nod from her and grins before clicking on the email.

Charlie frowns slightly and sits up pulling Santana close so she can just take in her scent, and closes her eyes. "So? Am I going to be crashing with you and Brittany next semester?" Charlie asks when Santana suddenly goes tense and she can't help but rub her leg slightly. "Santana? Is it a no?"

"No dummy, you got _in_! Holy shit you got in!" Santana said shaking Charlie who goes limp after the second shake and falls backward, pulling her along. She laughs when she falls on Charlie who adjusts slightly underneath her. It takes Santana a moment to realize that Charlie was smirking up at her.

"I think I deserve a reward, don't you?"

Santana rolls her eyes. "Let me guess you want a bone?"

"To bone. I want _to _bone." Charlie corrects flashing Santana a smile, "I know you want to as well, I can _smell it_."

Santana laughed and rolled her eyes before pulling herself off Charlie. "Fine. Go and get some condoms."

Charlie grimaced but nodded, scrambling up to her feet and grabbing her coat. "I'll be back soon."

"Take your time, I need to text Brittany that the apartment is going to be in use." Santana said shaking her head, watching as Charlie headed to the door, it had been a while since she had seen Charlie moving with a bit of purpose in her step. Sure, they were going to have _sex_, but she _hoped _that Charlie was excited to go back to school.

~O~

"Must I?"

"Yes Charlie, put it on," Santana insists from where she was watching.

"It _smells_. Why in the world would you want this _inside of you_." Charlie grimaces as she played with the condom, poking at it.

"I don't, but I also at this point don't want a baby inside of me either. It's not impossible you know, and I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"It feels like I put my dick in a slimy banana peel," Charlie whines staring down at herself. This was the _absolute _worst, and every fibre in her being wanted her to remove the damn thing. In fact, she does watching as Santana frowns at her. "I _can't_."

"You can't?" Santana repeats as Charlie begins to rub her dick trying to wipe the smell off. From the looks of it they weren't going to be having any sex regardless, she'd seen Charlie in various different states of arousal. Never at full mast, but she was definitely soft.

"Even in my human form my senses are heightened, which is why I can smell that you're ovulating. This smells like chemicals and latex. I mean I know you can smell it, now take that and magnify it by _ten_. I just _can't_." Charlie huffed at this, and frowned. "I need a shower. It still smells!"

Santana flicks her eyes to Charlie for a moment, there was an honest distressed look on her face and she feels a bit guilty maybe they needed to get _special _condoms or _something _similar for someone like them. She'd ask Brittany, she was off having sex with various other cat people and humans and she was certain that Brittany had never been pregnant before. She probably should have asked first. "Go ahead. Just stay away from Brittany's rubber ducks."

"Brittany has rubber ducks?"

"She likes to take bubble baths—just go Charlie." Santana said waving her off as she picked up a baggy shirt from the ground and slipping it on. Charlie hesitates for a moment before heading to their bathroom to shower. With a sigh, she picks up her phone and texts Brittany that it was a false alarm.

**You know there's a little blue pill if Charlie has trouble getting it up**

Santana snorted at this and shakes her head, deciding to respond to Brittany before she said something that embarrassed the heck out of Charlie when they were all together. **She doesn't like the smell of condoms and it kind of ruined the experience. **She hoped it was the right thing to say. There's a moment before she sees Brittany writing back.

**Why do you need condoms? She can't get you pregnant and she's a virgin so STD free, right?**

Santana rolled her eyes, reminding Brittany of her offhanded comment a few days ago. **You said that there was a chance and according to Charlie I'm ovulating, which means that I'm not taking the chance. She couldn't stand the smell of the latex.**

**You made her wear Latex condoms? No wonder it didn't go as planned! I have a pack for people like us, in the drawer beside my bed use those! And have fun.**

Santana stared at the text, for a moment before scrambling up and entering Brittany's room, she crinkles her nose and opens the drawer spotting the box of condoms and grabbing two of them. She immediately treks back into the bathroom and strips herself out of her clothes before pushing the door open. She bites her lip for a moment before slipping inside. She waits for a moment before pulling the curtain back.

Charlie flicks her eyes over at her girlfriend for a moment, she wasn't some ninja. She'd been aware of all the moving around. "If you wanted to see me naked and wet all you needed to do was—" Santana steps inside the tub and leans in and kisses her. It's enough to get her worked up for a moment but she pulls back nearly slipping and narrows her eyes at Santana. "I am not—"

"Brittany says we can use what she uses, which means it probably doesn't have that gross smell that you don't like." Santana interrupts holding up the condoms. "I mean it's just for today, and once I'm not fertile we don't need these." Santana says quickly watching Charlie study the condoms for a moment before wrapping her arms around her waist and pulling her closer.


	37. Chapter 37

Santana gasped as she weakly tried to push Charlie off her weakened body, "_C-Charlie!_ Stop. For fucks sake _stop_."

Charlie stops mid thrust and peers down at Santana, a look of concern on her face. "You okay?" She slowly pulls herself out and leans back to give Santana a bit of breathing room. "I wasn't being too rough with you, was I?"

Santana slumped back into the pillows and stared at Charlie in shock, "Being too rough?" She echoes trying not to laugh but she can't help herself. They had used both condoms in the shower together and that had been nearly four hours ago. Charlie was already on her seventh condom and she hadn't _stopped_. If anything, she had only gotten harder as the time went on. "You swore you were a virgin!"

A distressed look crossed Charlie's face as she looked over Santana carefully, sure there were a few bruises on her hips and her legs and her neck from all the hickeys she had left but she didn't seem _hurt_. "I'm sorry—we can go slower."

"No! For fucks sake Charlie, how are you still _hard_?"

Charlie glanced down at her penis and flushed stumbling back a bit and sitting on the bed and crossing her legs. She grabs a pillow and places it on her lap to cover herself. "I don't know you just smell really good. I thought you _liked _it—I mean it's my first time I'll probably get, better right?"

It takes her a long moment to realize that Charlie was freaking out in her own insecurity, "Shit Charlie, I don't think I can live through you getting _better _at this. Hell, you're probably lying to me and you've had sex. Because no one is _that _good on their first time. No one lasts that long their _first _time."

"Oh, this isn't normal?"

"_No_! You're supposed to go to the hospital if your dicks been hard for four hours—are you cheating?"

"Cheating?" Charlie repeats tilting her head.

"Viagra? Cialis? Levitra? What the fuck are you using? I think you may need to go see a doctor." Santana groaned and propped herself up by her elbows to stare at Charlie.

Charlie glances down at the pillow and then back at Santana, "I don't have erectile dysfunction Santana," she says flatly looking at her. "Are you okay?"

"No. I'm not okay. You've broken me. You've fucking broke my pussy. You're not supposed to be that good. You're supposed to be nervous and sweet and gentle and not fuck me for four hours straight in every conceivable position. For hours on end! I'm supposed to tell you what I like, and I don't know teach you! We're supposed to practice a lot. I was looking forward to the practice. You weren't supposed to be an idiot savant with your dick. So—_fuck you_."

Charlie tilts her head and shoots Santana a wolfish grin, "Oh. I'm sure I just did to you over and—" Charlie grins at the pillow smacks her in the face and laughs. She stops when Santana simply scowls at her. She holds up her hands in surrender, "I'm sorry. I just—I _needed_ to be the best you've ever had. So, I was super focused on whether you were enjoying it or not."

"What the screams of pleasure, the tearing your back apart with my nails or the begging you fuck me harder wasn't a good indicator that I was in pure bliss?" Santana retorted her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I thought you were trying to make me feel better!" Charlie insists, though she can't lie about that with a straight face and begins to snicker.

"I hate you."

"I love you," Charlie admits watching as Santana's eyes widen at the statement. "I love you," Charlie repeats with a simple shrug. "Not just because you're my mate, but I _love you_. You don't have to like say it back or anything, I just feel like I should let you know."

Santana reached to grab Charlie's arm and used it as leverage to pull her into a sitting position, she wanted to curl up with her girlfriend—her _mate _and just sleep for a bit before letting Charlie put her into a sex coma once more. Instead she simply grips Charlie's arm and pulls her towards her weakly allowing Charlie to lean in so she can plant a gentle kiss on her lips. "I love you too, _Fuzzbutt_."

"Knew you loved the wolf more than you loved me," Charlie murmured back.

"Guilty," Santana teased kissing Charlie quickly once more before flopping back on the bed.

Charlie smiled and leaned back for a moment, "Are you ready for round two?" she asks hopefully.

Santana narrowed her eyes at Charlie and points to the pillow, "If you even _think_ about putting that inside me again, I'm going to leave you," Santana informs her.

Charlie puffed out her cheeks slightly irked by the response, she was still horny and didn't quite know what to do. It was Santana's fault, no one should smell that good. "So, we can continue as long as it's not my dick?"

The implication of Charlie's words was clear and the lazy grin on her face was enough to alert Santana to what she had planned. "Charlie. Even though I love Fuzzbutt more, I do love you. If you put anything near that area of my body before I've had a chance to catch my breath I will smack you. So how about you go get me some water and something to eat and then feed me, and we'll get to round two?"

Charlie sighs at this but nods and slides off the bed. Santana wasn't an animal person, and she didn't have her stamina, she should have been much more thoughtful. She would look into the price of a mini-fridge and then fill it with food for Santana so she didn't have to leave her room in the middle of sex. With a nod of her head Charlie scratches her jaw as she heads into the kitchen and opens the fridge letting the cold air hit her in the face. It felt nice against her skin and she made a mental note to also buy Santana's room a fan.

Studying what was in the fridge she finally grabs two bottles of water, and some bacon that Santana had lying around. She also opens a few cupboards to see if she could find a bowl to put the strawberries in when the front door opens and she turns to stare at Brittany.

Brittany blinks and stares back at Charlie who was standing there in the nude and blinks. "_Hey_ Chuck! Looking good!"

"Where are your bowls?" Charlie asks in response not bothered that Brittany was leering at her. When Brittany doesn't answer right away she sighs and goes back to opening random cupboards till she finds them and grabs it.

"So, is San in a sex coma yet?" Brittany asked, finally tearing her eyes away from Charlie's member and looking at Charlie who was emptying the strawberries into a bowl and was smothering them with some whipped cream.

Charlie crinkled her nose at the question, "We're still going to be having sex Brittany, you should probably go away. I thought Santana told you all this?"

"She did. I need to grab my laptop, I should probably study. Or you know—"

"No."

Charlie turns to where Santana is leaning against the wall her legs shaking with effort, she frowns and moves to help her only for Santana to hold a hand up, "I got strawberries."

"Why are you naked in front of Brittany?" Santana demanded immediately, Charlie wasn't even trying to hide her nudity. She sighs and rolls her eyes when Charlie looks down at herself. This was probably one of those animal people things that she didn't understand. She _trusted_ Charlie to rebuff Brittany's advances, and she knew that Brittany wouldn't really care about being rejected. "Brittany, you can't have a threesome with us, Charlie at the very least put on underwear when you're going around the apartment. Understood?"

"But San!" Brittany protested.

Charlie grinned, there was a possessive note in Santana's voice, "Sorry, won't happen again," she promised.

"You guys _suck_," Brittany muttered under her breath.

"I know, now carry me back to bed," Santana says watching as Charlie carefully balances the bowl and water. She takes the bowl and water and allows Charlie to sweep her off her feet. Santana flashes a smile at Brittany who shoots her a thumb's up and she relaxes in Charlie's arms. "I thought you were modest," Santana admits, "But you're off flashing the goods to everyone," Santana says tweaking Charlie's nipple.

"I've never been modest Santana, you saw those pants that I used to wear back in high school. I was only modest around you because I didn't want to tempt you."

"Tempt me? With your dick?" Santana scoffs as Charlie places her gently on the bed.

"To tease me," Charlie finishes. "I'm still not sure about my control when it comes to you."

"Control? Charlie, you just fucked me six ways to Sunday and then back again, we've done positions that no one else can do."

"I meant my control, I mean this sets a terrible precedent. Now all I'm going to do is think about sex, with you all the time." Charlie groans as she takes a bite of the strawberry. "How am I supposed to focus on anything else?"

Santana laughs, "So I shouldn't give you a blowjob?"

Charlie's eyes widen at Santana, "I'm not going to say no—"

"I mean you make it seem like thinking about having sex with me is a terrible thing," Santana teases.

"I was right to worry about you teasing me!" Charlie puffs out her cheeks.

"Maybe later, right now I just want to cuddle you, I mean they're not as good as Fuzzbutt's but it's close."

"You're going to give me a complex," Charlie grumbled as she pulled Santana closer to her body.

"I don't think you've _felt _your fur Charlie. It's so soft and fluffy," Santana said dreamily. Fuzzbutt didn't even mind being used as a pillow, it was perfect.

"Yep, definitely going to have a complex," Charlie sighed nipping at Santana's shoulder.


	38. Chapter 38

"I can't even put it into words Santana, how _amazing_ it is. I can't thank you enough," Rachel gushed as she helped her stepsister set the table. "I mean, all it took was a small bite, and yeah I was sick for days but Quinn took care of me, every single day. I mean we're closer than _ever_ before."

Santana gritted her teeth slightly and glanced over at Charlie who was currently in the kitchen helping her mother. Having Thanksgiving dinner with Charlie and her family had seemed like a good idea at the time, _no_-one had said anything about Rachel being present. She hadn't seen Rachel since her turn. "Good for you," she mumbled glancing over at Charlie, she _knew _Charlie could hear the conversation.

"Like she just _knows_. Everything, all my emotions, she knows when I'm feeling distressed even when we're not in the same room. When I was worried about my audition, she _knew _even though she was a state away. I mean I was iffy at first about turning, but I barely have a scar. I know that Charlie's just gotten back to school, but I think the sooner you do it the better."

Santana glances back at Charlie for a moment who turns to look at her, and bites her lip trying not to laugh out loud. Charlie's mouth was currently filled to the brim with bacon. "You're going to _choke_ you do know, that right?"

Charlie slowly chews and shivers before swallowing, and flashes Santana a huge grin. "Then I'd die happy, with a belly full of bacon. What more can anyone ask for?" Charlie asks seriously.

Santana rolled her eyes at the statement. "Your bacon obsession is weird," Santana mutters under her breath, groaning when all the Fabray's gasp in shock and horror. "Weirdos." She pauses for a moment and glances over at Rachel, she hadn't seen any of Rachel's weird _vegan_ crap. "What are you going to eat?"

"I'm a _wolf_ now Santana, we're carnivorous, aren't you a vet? Shouldn't you know that?" Rachel asks seriously.

Santana blinked twice, "You tried to feed Charlie _vegetables_ when we were teenagers, and you insisted, that wolves could survive on a diet of rabbit food. And now you're perfectly fine with tearing into the flesh of a dead animal?"

Rachel flushed and shot Quinn an annoyed look when Quinn snorted. "I was wrong. I know better now," she mumbled in embarrassment.

"Uhuh," Santana rolled her eyes again and turned to look at Charlie who was staring at the massive turkey. Immediately she breaks away from Rachel and moves to wrap her arms around her girlfriend tightly before she decided to steal the turkey and go and hide somewhere and finish it. It was also a convenient excuse to get away from Rachel. The last thing she needed to do was have her bragging about how great her life was and demanding to know when she was going to make the turn. "Charlie, _no_."

Charlie puffs out her cheeks and turns to look at Santana frowning slightly for a moment, and glancing at Rachel. She reaches down and takes Santana's hand before looking at her mother, "I'm going to show Santana my room."

"Is that code for sex?" Judy asked, crinkling her nose. "I know you're both adults but dinner will be ready soon."

Santana turned a bright red and tried to tug her hand out of Charlie's hand, but Charlie's grip was tight. She didn't want Judy to think that they were going to disrespect her like that.

"We're not going to have sex mom, who do you think I am? Quinn and Rachel?"

"At least I'm _having _sex," Quinn snaps at her sister. "Besides we're trying to have _pups_."

Judy's eyes widened at the statement and she turns on her oldest daughter, "You're trying to have children?"

Santana stiffens at this announcement _stunned_. Rachel had just made the change about six months ago, how could they even _think _about having children now? She barely registers Charlie tugging her along until she trips over the stairs. She looks up at Charlie who is looking at her expectantly. "Sorry, it's just a bit of a shock is all, they're trying to have kids."

"You're not done with vet school, I'm just halfway through my first semester of second year. Who cares what Rachel and Quinn are doing with their lives," Charlie says gently as she opens the door to her room and pulls Santana inside, closing the door behind her.

Santana shakes her head, "I know, but _pups_. It's just a lot to take in. I didn't think Rachel would be the type of person to forget who she was. Being vegan, I mean according to Shelby she used to cry when eggs were cracked. She also didn't want kids till after she had won one of the major awards. But just because Quinn thinks it's a good idea—"

"Quinn is an alpha, I can see how Rachel could get swept away. It's supposed to be _very _intense the first few months, and she just turned so everything is probably turned up to an eleven right now. Her emotions, her senses, everything she's feeling magnified by twenty." Charlie shrugged. "It's not our life."

"Really? So, in a few months Rachel's going to go back to vegan eating?"

"Well if Rachel gets pregnant expect whatever this is times forty," Charlie said with a shrug, before grinning. "Quinn's going to be _miserable_. Good thing they live so far away, we don't have to get involved in that shit-show."

Santana smirks, trust Charlie to find the silver lining. "We also don't have to babysit their little demon children."

"Please, as if Quinn would let me watch over her hell spawn," Charlie smiles and leans in to kiss Santana gently. "We've talked about this Santana," Charlie reminds her gently.

"I know, but Rachel is being _Rachel_ and it's just annoying. She's probably not going to stop asking, and trying to _help _me. Like I'm some lost cause or I don't know what I'm missing." Santana grumbles trying to brush Charlie's concern aside.

"That's just Rachel. Whether she's a regular old human or a wolf like me, she's just annoying," Charlie points out. "I mean she tried to feed me _vegetables_."

"I'm trying to feed you vegetables," Santana reminded her. Charlie couldn't just live on her unbalanced diet.

"Yes, and I've told you that my wolf and I agree that you are _evil_," Charlie smiles and kisses Santana again. She shoots Santana an amused grin and nods towards to her bed. "Since we're here." She wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

Santana follows Charlie's gaze and then takes a step away from her mate. "Nope."

"_Santana!_" It's a whine and she doesn't care.

"We're in your _childhood_ home, and your _parents _are just downstairs and they have _super hearing_ and _smell_. Why the hell would I say yes to that?" Santana asks.

"So, if I got rid of them—"

"No," Santana interrupts, hoping that puts a stop to that train of thought. She didn't want Charlie fighting for dominance over something silly like trying to fuck her in her childhood bedroom. "It's Thanksgiving, no fighting."

"I can't promise that Santana. What if Quinn tries to steal my food?"

"Fine stab Quinn in the hand but no brawling," Santana sighed and rolled her eyes when Charlie smiles pleased with the idea.

"Okay, I promise not to brawl with Quinn if you promise not to let Rachel get to you," Charlie says nuzzling her. "Unless of course she bursts out into song. Then I say we just steal the turkey and leave."

Santana bit her lip, "You get the turkey, I'll grab the desserts."

"Deal," Charlie says shaking Santana's hand and smiling at her. She quickly pulls Santana into a hug, making sure to give her a small squeeze. She didn't quite know how to assure Santana that she was _happy_ with their relationship. Were there parts of her relationship she wished she could share with Santana that she simply couldn't? Of course, there were, but all she needed to do was convince Santana to go camping with her and she could watch from afar as she took down a stag all by herself. Santana would be so impressed that—

"I already said _no_," Santana reminded her pinching Charlie's side. She didn't want to know what Charlie was thinking about that got her so worked up. They were _in_ her parent's house, in her childhood bedroom. "I don't care if you fantasized about taking your mate up in your childhood bed, it's not happening here."

"Huh—_shit_," Charlie said pulling away and trying to think of the unsexiest thing she could. She wasn't going to go to dinner with a massive hardon.

~O~

"I think Rachel is ready for her first hunt," Quinn informed her parents rubbing the stab wound in her hand and trying not to glare at Charlie.

Charlie pushed more food onto Santana's plate, making sure that she had more food on her plate than on Rachel's plate. "Is that enough?" Charlie asked.

Santana crinkled her nose slightly there was no way that she could finish all the food, "It is, promise," she mumbled and smiled at Charlie.

Charlie nods happily and grabs the mashed potatoes and dumps the rest of them onto her plate before slathering it with gravy. She also takes the huge turkey leg and glances around the table before piling her plate up with stuffing.

"Have enough?" Santana asked teasing Charlie who looks over at her.

"This is just the first plate, I would get more if the plates were bigger, but mom says that we can't use those when we have guests," Charlie explains.

"Charlie!" Judy said mortified.

Russell rolled his eyes and turned to look over at Rachel for a moment, he had to admit that Charlie had chosen an interesting mate for herself. The idea that they no longer had to _maul _potential partners? It was knowledge that the council was _debating, _he hadn't informed Santana that she would be asked to speak in front of them but that was something for later. "If you want to take her hunting then I suppose we could all go down to the cabin and do some hunting," he shrugged his shoulders.

Charlie's head whipped up she hadn't been there in _ages_, it was _perfect_. There was no way in hell that she was going to convince Santana to get into a tent with her. "Can Santana come?"

Santana's eyes widened at this and flushed when Judy and Russell turned to look at her, "Camping's not my thing," she says quickly hoping that puts an end to Charlie's attempts to get her into nature. The closest she got was taking Fuzzbutt to the park and watching her crash into trees trying to get at the squirrels.

"This isn't _camping_," Charlie said with her mouth filled with food.

"Chew. Swallow," Santana sighs trying not to smile.

"There's a flushable toilet," Charlie says after she swallows.

Judy sighed, Charlie couldn't sell this even if she wanted to. "You're quite welcome to join us Santana, even though they _say_ it's a cabin in the woods it has internet and modern conveniences, we aren't _savages_. It'll be _lovely_."

Santana hesitates for a moment and turns to glare at Charlie who was ignoring her on purpose. "That sounds lovely," she says reaching over and pinching Charlie's hip hard.

Charlie flashes her a grin, "You said you wouldn't go camping with me if it didn't have flushable toilets, this solves that problem. Everyone wins."

"Really? That's what you're going with?"

"Yes. You'll have fun, there's a fireplace, it's _very _romantic," Charlie wiggled her eyebrows.

"No."

"But—"

"No."

"Come on!"

"No."

Quinn glanced between the two of them for a moment before rolling her eyes, Charlie had already said that she wasn't going to turn Santana but she didn't _understand_ why. There was _nothing _like a complete bond. She watches as Charlie moves to put more food on Santana's plate, only for Santana to shovel some of that food onto Charlie's own. It was nauseating in a way. But Rachel was working on it for Charlie and Santana's own good. Going to the cabin would be the perfect time to get Santana on board.


	39. Chapter 39

"I thought you said we would be _roughing_ it," Santana said staring at the large log cabin in the woods. It looked _modern_, it even had a two-door garage. Sure, Judy had said it had modern conveniences but Charlie had made it seem like some dilapidated place in the woods that at least had running water and a working toilet. "This isn't what I envisioned!"

"We are going to be roughing it, there's a few snacks Santana but mostly we have to catch our own dinner," Charlie pointed out.

"Catch our own dinner?" Santana repeats, flushing a bit. "Charlie, I can't _hunt_. I don't know how to use a gun—we're supposed to be here for the long weekend. Do I really have to listen to Rachel go on and on about how great it is?"

Charlie hesitated for a moment, she had been excited for Santana to see her hunt. She wanted Santana to be impressed with her in her natural environment. She wasn't the most graceful chasing squirrels and Santana tended to be highly amused by her antics she just wanted Santana to _see _that side of her. "It's not about Rachel. Rachel is probably excited about her first hunt but that doesn't mean she's ready for it. I mean up until recently she was a vegan, and I'm still _me_ sort of when I'm in my wolf form. It's one thing to eat meat, it's another thing to actually _do _the killing." Charlie pointed out. "This weekend isn't _about them_, if it was going to be just about you and me."

Santana swallowed and nodded, she knew that Charlie wanted her to watch her hunt, she'd been talking about it for days. "I know, I know, but I mean they seem so _happy_ together and I know you said you're _happy_ right now, I know you say that now. But when Rachel and Quinn have little demonic children around, you'll probably want them too."

"Santana—"

"And I know that you say that right now you're not thinking of kids, and I know that adoption is one of those weird things that is completely dependent on your wolf—"

"San—" Charlie tried again trying to get a word in before this could devolve further.

"I don't want you to resent me. I don't want you to _hate _me for being human when there is a viable alternative, that by all accounts works. I mean doesn't it bother you? Everyone is telling you openly that it's _better_ that what they have is better than what we have. They get to have everything you can't and I know you're _you_ and you're cheesy and a bit of a dork and promise me that I'm all you need and if you were just human I would believe that. But you're _not_. I mean we broke up when I was sixteen because I didn't really understand anything and there is _plenty_ I don't understand now." Santana gasped for air when her little rant was done and studied Charlie.

Charlie stares for a moment, there was a lot to unpack there and it wouldn't be long till Quinn and Rachel arrived in their fancy car, and began to grate on her senses about what was right. She needed to choose her words carefully. "Santana do you remember how you found me? High as a kite, battling my wolf side to just remain in control? On a copious amount of horse tranquilizers? Look at me now, I'm here, I'm healthy, I'm not getting into fights with other alpha's. I'm just _here_. With you, _happy_. I am happy. I mean sure we could probably have sex a bit more—"

"We are not going back to sex five times a week. I need _sleep_," Santana snaps and rolls her eyes when Charlie grins at her. "Be serious."

"I _am_. I prefer this, honestly. I prefer you being human. I mean it may seem like Rachel and Quinn have it all together now, part of that is the new bond, part of it is the fact that Rachel has just turned, but that does fade. You think Rachel won't eventually realize that she basically _married _my sister in the most permanent of ways? She's trapped in a relationship with Quinn for the rest of her life and someone like Rachel, it might not hit her now, but one day it will. One day she'll want to do something and Quinn will be annoyed because it's Quinn and she'll say no, not as her girlfriend or lover or wife or whatever, but as her alpha. And trust me there will be resentment. Especially in their case because Rachel wasn't _raised _in the culture."

"Are you trapped? Loving me? Does it feel that way?" Santana asked after a moment.

"Fuck no. Loving you is the best thing in my life. Who else am I going to pester to rub my belly?" Charlie asked seriously. "I mean I'm an alpha and you're a human and you take care of me, and honestly I like it. I like that everything isn't on my shoulders. I mean when I was a dumb teenager I thought what Quinn and Rachel have, what my parents have is what I wanted. Guess what? I don't even really _like _children. They're the worst and if we have them then I'll be down to sex once a month if I'm lucky. And you'll want to scratch their bellies, and you have to _housebreak _them. Ugh, it's a nightmare. I'll have to share my _food_ Santana."

Santana blinks and tries not to laugh at the distressed look on Charlie's face. "I worry about you," she teases nudging Charlie gently. It takes a moment for Charlie to flash her that grin of hers and pull her into a hug. "If that changes—I mean we can compromise, right?"

"On the sex?" Charlie grins when Santana pinches her side and smiles for a moment before nuzzling her. Santana didn't understand what this _meant_ to her. She was human and she was choosing to stay with her, that she had chosen her despite the fact that she was part wolf. "Kidding, _mostly_. If anything changes with me, I _swear_ I'll let you know. If you eventually want little ankle biters then let me know, we'll figure it out, but I'm _not_ going to share my food."

"Noted," Santana says with a laugh as a car pulled into the long driveway. She bites her lip, sure Charlie's car was old but it was well maintained, and she narrowed her eyes slowly. "I know you're not the best hunter Charlie—"

"Who said that?"

"Me. I've seen you attempting to catch a rabbit." Santana pointed out. "I just—you can _beat _Quinn, right? I mean like in hunting if she brings back some poor defenseless baby deer or something can you just—"

"I'll bring home the stag all by myself," Charlie promises.

Santana shakes her head, she had no idea why she felt this need to show Rachel up, but she wanted everyone to know that Fuzzbutt was the best and Fuzzbutt was _hers_.

~O~

"Shouldn't they be back by now?"

Judy glanced over at Santana who was pacing by the window and studies her for a moment. "Sometimes it takes a day or two, sometimes only a few hours it depends. Relax, Charlie's done this a million times. She's only gotten lost _once_."

Santana snorts and bites her lip but takes a seat by the fireplace. "She was shot," she reminds Judy who frowns slightly at the memory. "Sorry I just—"

"You care about her, I know. I do as well. I was the one that insisted that Russell bring her back into _society_, before she became feral. So, I know that everyone is telling you all these things and it's a _lot_. Everything is _a lot _to take in, but I want you to know that if you do to choose to remain _human_. I support you, I haven't seen Charlie this happy—this engaged since well she met you. She's finally found her balance. So, I know things may seem tough and Quinn and Rachel are putting all this pressure on you. But you two are adults and you need to figure out what's right for you."

Santana nods, it was something that she had needed to hear. She had expected spending the day with Judy would be one of those awkward things but Judy had been good to her. "I don't want her to resent me."

"Even when she was freezing in Alaska, she _didn't _resent you. She just wanted things to go back to the way they were. She wants you happy and if you being happy means that you stay human than that's what she's going to want," Judy said before tilting her head to the side. "They're back," she hummed getting up.

Santana strained her ears but couldn't hear anything. That would be a nifty trick to have and she gets up and grabs the robe for Charlie and heads outside. She waits for a moment till she spots Charlie carrying a massive stag, that's slung over her shoulders as she makes her way back to the cabin. Santana's eyes widen as Charlie smirks at her. It takes her a moment to realize that Charlie is very naked and quickly hops down the stairs so she can wrap Charlie up. "I've seen you hunt no way you took that beast down by yourself," Santana mutters mostly in shock.

"Rachel and Quinn will be back soon, Rachel didn't like it and Quinn had to take care of her," Charlie explained as she dropped the stag unceremoniously onto the ground. "Had to outthink the damn beast, it's what took so long. Nearly got gouged by the damn thing as well," Charlie bitched. She shivers as Santana helps her put on the robe, and there was a part of her that wanted to transform so Santana could see how smug her wolf was being right now. "As you asked, the biggest game belongs to me. Which means we get the best cuts."

"I didn't ask for you to get yourself killed, I just said bigger than whatever Rachel and Quinn got," Santana reminded her. She was about to lean in and kiss Charlie's mouth but as usual Charlie's breath after her transformation smelled like death. She was definitely going to need to attempt to brush Fuzzbutt's teeth. She instead chooses to rest her hand on Charlie's chest.

"Yeah but I wasn't sure if they were going to try again so I went for the biggest thing I could see and find, took me all day chasing the damn thing down and tiring it out." Charlie bent down and grabbed the stag and adjusted the creature so it was on her shoulders. "I wish there was someway you could _watch_ me, like I'm far more impressive than anything you see on national geographic."

"I don't know about that," Santana says with a laugh, turning when she spots Quinn and Rachel pull up and she watches as Judy moves to go and cover them. She's quiet for a moment Rachel looks a bit dejected by her failure and she shakes her head. "Charlie told me you did really well for your first time," She lies watching as Rachel perks up a bit at the compliment.

Charlie hummed as she carried the stag back to the garage where her mother would skin it and begin the process of making a feast. She stops after taking a step and nuzzles Santana before heading on her way. If this meant that Santana and Rachel would stop trying to battle for some weird form of dominance that wasn't physical then she was all for it. Quinn had been to excited and instead of trying to ease Rachel into it, had rushed straight to the big game. Rachel simply hadn't been ready for that. With a bit of effort, she dumps the dear onto the table and pulls off her robe so she could transform once more so her wolf could curl up with Santana. She definitely deserved to have her belly rubbed and Santana was going to do that.


	40. Chapter 40

Santana kicked off her boots and turned frowning slightly when she didn't see Charlie or Fuzzbutt lurking like they did, whenever she came home. But judging from the smell that was coming from the kitchen Charlie was home and she was going to _pamper _the shit out of her. She enters the kitchen, trying to keep her footsteps as quiet as possible so she could sneak up on her wife.

"You delivered an animal, today didn't you?" Charlie asked without turning around as she tasted the dish she was making.

Santana sighs, she was never going to manage to sneak up on her. Something Charlie was eerily good at. She takes a step anyway and despite the smell and the fact she feels gross she leans in and wraps her arms around Charlie's waist and leans against her. "Yeah, I can't hide anything from your nose. Speaking of smells, what you making? Smells _amazing_."

"Spanish chickpeas and rice. You know, one of those one-pot meals that everyone on the Food Network is doing," Charlie responded before tossing in a bit more salt and turning to kiss Santana on the forehead. "Long day?"

"_Yes_." Santana groaned trying to push her wife to the side so she could sneak a small bite. She groans and reaches for the pepper to add a bit more. "Brittany's pregnant again, so I'm going to have to take over her duties soon. So, I'm going to be super busy in a few months."

"Again?" Charlie crinkled her nose, before turning so she could sneeze.

"I know. I know, and I'm sorry in advance. How's work?"

"Busy, we're getting a few more contracts, and there may be a government contract in the future. You'll be pleased to know that I'm on top of my paperwork," Charlie sighed. "You're not the only one that's going to be busy. Why did I think making a security firm filled with shifters was a good idea? We're already far better than the competition."

Santana nods, Charlie had been busy and it made her feel a bit guilty. She had probably gotten home early, and had been bored without her. "Just as long as you stay behind the desk instead of being on the field."

Charlie nods and moves to add a few more spices, "I will, are we going for our run tomorrow?"

"You feeling a bit antsy? I can make time if that's what you need," Santana said and looked at Charlie. It had been weeks since she'd shifted to Fuzzbutt. "Of course, I'll text Britt to clear my schedule in the morning. Now I'm going to go shower and then I'm going to have dinner and some wine and then you can spend the rest of the evening pampering me and maybe if you're _super _good, you'll get a happy ending."

Charlie laughed, "You mean after bringing you to multiple earth shattering orgasms?"

"That's the—" Santana froze when the doorbell rang and she felt Charlie stiffen beside her. "Is it another person trying to convert us to their weird cult?" Santana whispered quietly.

"No, _worse_. I don't know how I missed it," Charlie said tugging Santana close and glancing around the kitchen. "Shit, okay, can we go through the window?"

"Charlie," Santana said in an exasperated tone. "Who—" She freezes when the person pushes down on the doorbell. "The window."

Charlie nods and is about to turn off the stove top when there's a loud rapping on the window. "_Shit_. They've found us Santana. Maybe if we stay super still—" Charlie groans when Quinn begins to bang on her door heavily. "You go shower, I'll take care of it."

"No, we'll do it together. United front," Santana said with a sigh as she headed to the front door with Charlie trailing behind her. She forces a huge smile onto her face and she whips open the door.

"_Aunt Tana! Aunt Chuck_!" Three voices said in unison.

Santana looked down at the triplets who were only four years old. "Oh, look at that! You've lost your tooth Beth! Amazing!" Santana said leaning down to pick up the oldest of the three.

"I gets to have a visit from the tooth fairy!" Beth said excitedly.

"Isn't she a bit young?" Charlie asked as she gets swamped by the two other girls, Liza and Julie.

Rachel rubbed her eyes, "We were at the hospital all this morning, she fell and cracked her two front teeth," Rachel explains.

"Oh, _baby_ are you okay?"

"Yes, she's fine. She's had like five popsicles." Quinn groaned. "Look, I know it's last minute but—"

Charlie glanced over at Santana who nodded, "Sure. Of course, you two can get some sleep. We'll take care of your little dem—" Charlie grimaced when Santana elbowed her hard. "Angels. We'll take care of your _angels_," Charlie corrected.

"Thanks," Rachel breathed, shoving the triplets overnight bag at Santana.

Santana rolled her eyes and looks over at Charlie before turning her attention to the kids. "Alright, who wants something _yummy_ for dinner?"

"Me!" All three shouted at the same time.

~O~

"Hey Santana?" Charlie said as she flopped onto their bed.

"Hmm?"

"No kids. I know we said we'd talk about it but—"

Santana exhaled loudly, "Oh thank god. I thought we were going to—"

Charlie relaxes a bit and sits up. "There are enough children in our lives right now and with Brittany having more and everyone using us as free babysitting—I mean they're ruining our lives and they're not even ours," Charlie muttered. They were supposed to be having sex right now, or cuddling or watching a movie not—being dead tired and miserable.

"I don't think I've seen Rachel that _miserable _before, I mean they're a handful now but later? Sometimes I wonder if I made the right decision—"

"You did. I know you did, because that could be _us_ Santana. You know exhausted and freaking out about our kids who are exceptionally clumsy for shifters, and still have the urge to procreate more and more," Charlie shuddered. "And you were worried that I was going to resent you."

Santana scoffed, she had been worried about that but their life was normal. She had married a werewolf, and there was no howling at the moon. There was no using her shoes as chew toys it was just a normal adult relationship, with someone who worshiped the ground she walked on. "Well you did run away to Alaska because I broke up with you," Santana shoots back.

"I admit that was a mistake," Charlie smiled, pulling Santana close. "If we're quiet—"

"Charlie there are _children_ around."

"Yeah, but not _ours_," Charlie grinned as Santana slowly smiled.

"True enough," she said kissing Charlie deeply. Charlie was her happy ending, and sure they didn't have kids but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that it was the two of them against the world.


End file.
